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LUNC-ISM     F    40 


The  Play  that  Is  Stirring  the  Nation 


®S£  Clansman 


'BK 


THOMAS  DIXON,  Jr. 


Copyright,  1905,  by  Thomas  Di 


C  0  n  t  c  n  t  js : 

1.  Portrait  and   Sketch  of  Author 

2.  Twenty-three  Great  Scenes  from  the  Play 

3.  The  Story  of  the  Drama 

4.  Mr.  Dixon's  Famous  Articles  on 

The  Future  of  the  Negro 

The  Story  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  and 

What  Our  Nation  owes  to  the  Klan 

N  E  W      Y  O  R  K 

the      a  m  e  r'l  c  an      n' e  w  s      company 
■"publishers    agents 


<»    r-   ivi  T  «?• 


AN     AMERICAN     DRAMA     By 

T  HO  MAS     D  I  XON,    Jr. 

C  F  r  o  m     his     two     famous     Novels 

*'€l)c  lLcoparD'0  ^pot0"  anD  **€l)c  Clanmnan" 


ACT  I. 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  MASTER 

SCENE:     In    front    of  the    Cameron    House,    Piedmont,  S.  C, 
Election   Day,  November  20,   1867. 

ACT  II. 

THE  SLAVE  IN  THE  MASTER'S 
HALL 

SCENE:      1  he   Parlor  of  the   Cameron   House,  one   year  later. 

ACT   III. 

IN  THE  CLAWS  OF  THE  BEAST 

PART   1.  The   Beat  of  a   Sparrow's    Wing. 

SCENE:  Same  as  .Act  I.     A  week  has  elapsed. 

PART   2.  The   Hunt  for  the   Animal 

SCENE:  The  Cave   Den  of  the   Klan   three   hours  later. 

ACT   IV. 

THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN 

SCENE:     The    Library  of  Silas  Lynch,  the   Negro  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  South  Carolina,  the  ne.xt  afternoon. 


N  T 


%\)t  ^outljem  gimugemcnt  Co. 

GEORGE    H.    B  REN  NAN,    Manager 

Knickerbocker    Theatre    Building 
Number  1402   Broadway,    New   York 


■HE   AUTHOR   RETOUCHING  THE   DIALOGUE  DURING 
REHEARSALS. 


Ci)e  ^rotiiiction 
of  tijc  ^Iaj> 

%.  Sequel  to  (UncU  Com  ;S  Cabin 

^MMS^"^.  CLANSMAN" 

\fi^  which  is  in  an  import- 

^  ant    sense  a  sequel  to 

^  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin" 

^^  was    produced  at  The 

MMMMM  ^'''''^^'"y  °^  Music, 
wvttjfvn       jivttrivft  Norfolk,   Virginia, 

September  22,  1905,  to  one  of  the  largest 
audiences  which  ever  assembled  in  a 
theatre  in  the  city.  It  was  received  with 
remarkable  enthusiasm  and  was  played 
through  the  South  to  crowds  which  have 
broken  the  records  of  every  house  in 
which  it  has  been  presented. 

The  sensation  it  has  created  in  the 
Southern  towns  and  cities  has  no  parallel. 
The  press  has  devoted  columns  of  editori- 
als to  the  discussion  of  the  play.  While 
many  of  them  have  taken  the  ground 
that  such  a  drama  should  not  be  given 
in  the  South,  where  the  race  problem  is 
acute,  they  have  all  agreed  that  the  North 
should  see  the  picture  it  presents.  The 
historical  accuracy  of  this  picture  is 
absolutely  unassailable.  Mr.  Dixon's 
answer  to  his  Southern  critics  is  simple 
and  to  the  point:  "The  truth  is  its  own 
vindication.  North,  South,  East  and 
West.  If  my  play  is  true,  the  young 
South  should  know  it,  the  young  North 
should  know  it.  If  it  is  false,  it  should  be 
surpressed.  If  it  is  good  for  one  section, 
it  is  good  for  all.  I  seek  national  unity 
through  knowledge  of  the  truth." 


Cljc  Scatimg  Cljaracters 
of  tlje  ^3Ia|) 


ARRANCJED   IN  THE  ORDER  WHICH 
THEY    FIRST   APPEAR 


ALECK,      ------         The  Sheriff  of  Ulster 

NELSE,       -----     A  >,  Ohi  Fashioned  Negro 

CARPETBAGGER,    -     -     Peddler  and  Auctioneer 
GUS.        --------  0/  the  Black  Guard 

DICK,       -------     A  Gemman  of  Color 

EVE,       ..--------_   N else's  Wife 

AUSTIN  STONEMAN,      -     -        Radical  Leader 
Dr.   RICHARD  CAMERON,    -     A  Conservative 
FLORA,     ------       His  Little  Daughter 

NELLIE  GRAHAM,     -       Ben's  First  Sweetheart 

KATE   LAURENS,  \ 

-----    Nellie's  Friends 
ALICE  WORTH.     I 

ELSIE  STONEMAN,       -     \-The  Radical  Leader  s 

{       Daughter 

BEN  CAMERON,  -----  The  Clansman 
SILAS  LYNCH,  -  Lieut. -Gov.  of  South  Carolina 
NEGRO  CORPORAL,     Of  the  Governor's  Guard 

WILLIAM  PITT  SHRIMP,    -     -!  Gc"^'- of  South 

{  Carolina 

GEN.  N.  B.  FORREST,  Grand  Wizard  of  the  Klan 

SOLDIERS,  BLACK  LEAGUERS,  CITIZENS, 
CLANSMEN,  ETC. 


J^ 


i 


lo.    TWKLVE  PAGI]S. 


THIIEK  CEN 


THOMA^^  D7XON,   JR- 


/^/*  //  /      ,i.  'ff"  ^     ^  -v^  - 


""i^r  ^./••///^''/i'f^'r'if'rffh''^* 


'THE  GLflNSMflN"  SCORED 
SENSflTlONflL  SUCCESS 

Thomas  Dixon's  Play  Swept  Big  Audience  Off  Its  Feet  And 
Stirred  Whites  And  Blacks  To  Intense  Feeling* 


Ill  a  cheap  theatre  once  the  writer 
saw  a  blood  and  thunder  melodrama 
sweep  an  •:  udiencce  oft  \:^  feet  in  a 
wild  rT-ft\»>  of  enlhushism  Men  cnt-er- 
ed  and  stamped  their  feet  and  clapped 
their  hands  in  approval  of  the  hoio 
^nd  hissed  the  villain  with  an  earnest- 
ness that  depicted  the  wrath  he  had 
stirred  up  witfalnl  their  hearts.  But  that 
audicr.c  w-as  on  a  par  with  the  theatre 
it  fiHea.  Culture  and  the  gift  of  edu- 
L-atlun.  we^e  ininUs  (luaiitities.  Its  na- 
ture-was-appealed  to  in  a  direct  man- 
ner by  a  play  -which  dealt  with  the 
baser  passions  of  life  in  a  wide-open 
way. 

Last  night  two  thousand  people  ac- 
corded a  reception  not  one  whit  less 
enthusiastic  to  another  play  These 
people  were  for  the  greater  part  the 
most  refin,ed  and  polished  of  this  sec- 
tion of  Virginia  They  arose  en  masse 
and  put  the  sea!  of  their  approbation 
upon  a  play  that  was  being:  presented 
fo9  the  first  time  on  any  stage.  The 
sound  of  hands  being  clapped  was 
drowned  sometimes  hy  the  volume  of 
cheers  that  echoed  througli  the  Acad- 
emy of  Music,  and  again  the  big  audi- 
torium fairly  seethed  with  sybilant 
hisses.  The  applause  was  for  the  play 
Itself,  for  the  man  \^ho  wrotoe  it  and 
for  the  people  who  depleted  the  heroic 
parts.  .\nd  the  hisses  ^\  e^-e  the  sni- 
corest  applause  thai  could  be  given 
those  actors  who  portrayed  Ihe  villain- 
ous and  unpopular  characters 

The  play  was  'The  Clansman  ""  Its 
author.  Thomas  Dixon    Jr 

Play  Stirs  Raze  Sentiment. 

As  a  dramatic  success  the  prcsen; 3- 
tlon  was  remarkable  The  siory  Is  ab- 
sorbing in  its  interest  and  the  plot  is 
one  in  which  the  sequence  of  o\cnt5 
leads  to  a  logical  denouement  after 
climaxes  of  intense  strength.  T'hoi  e 
\ver&  none  of  the  usual  "lirst  night" 
hitches  nor  of  the  exp*»ctrd  stumbh.ip 
in  the  lines.  The  cast  had  the  book 
letter  perfect,  the  business  as  smooth 
•and  as  finished  as  though  the  produc- 
tion had  been  running  for  weeks  and 
The  stage  force  were  a  I  their  work  '.^s 
though  they  had  been  ■■setting"  the 
play  for  many  days  This  is  fully  de- 
monstrated by  the  fact  that  the  four 
acts  and  five  scenes  were  produced  in 
three  hours. 

The  play  itself,  outside  of  th?  acting, 
the  setting  and  the  business,  but  just 
in  its  naked  lines,  is  unique.  Here  in 
Norfolk,  of  course  sentiment  Is  south- 
ern, strongly  southern,  and  this,  no 
doubt,  had  something  to  do  with  the 
enthusiasm.  Further  south  the  south- 
ern- sentiment  is  stronger. 

On  a  tour  through  the  south  "The 
Clansman"  will  be  like  -a  runaivay  car 
loaded    with  dynamite. 

Mr.  Dixon  declares  he  has  no  deseire 
to  stir  up  race  or  sectional  feeling.  But 
the  words  he  puts  into  the  mouths  of 
some  of  the  negro  characters,  the  situa- 
tions of  most  intense  race  differences, 
the  death  cf  a  fair  young  child  at  the 
hands  of  a  black  brute,  and  the  hor- 
rible insult  offered  a  white  woman  by 
a  negro  \vhen  he  told  her  he  was  a 
millionaire  and  asked  her  heart  and 
hand,  can  not  be  played  on  any  south- 
ern stage  before  southern  white  people 
without  rekindling  in  their  veins  the 
smouldering  fire  which  was  first  ignited 
during  the  dark  and  bloody  days  of  the 
Reconstruction  period. 

And  while  these  thingrs  aroused  the 
white  people^in  last  night's  audience, 
there  were  incTTlents  that  reflected  the 
thoughts  and  sentiments  which  existed 
high  up  In  the  gallery  where  hundreds 
of  negro  men"  and  women  were  packed 
and  jammed.  Their  hisses  were  just 
as  cutting  aa  those  of  the  whites,  but 
they  were  directed  at  the  white  char- 
acters, and  thoir  applause  was  never  so 
loud  as  when  the  negro/Lynch  ordered 
the  Abolitrcmlst  Stoneman  from  the 
former's  Arouse  and  presence.  This, 
after  Stonemsn,  who  had  preacTied 
eauality  and  brotherhood  and  Inter- 
marriage, h^d  seen  the  light  when 
Lynch  wanted  to  marry  his  daughter. 


Then   it   was   that   the   chickens   of   the 
North  caiu'    i'-uine  to  roost. 

Lesec"! '.s -White  ^^'p^jp^acy 

The  Itsson  rf  "The  Clansnian"  standa 
out  in  plain,  bold  type  all  through  the 
play".  There  is  no  '■problem"  attached 
to  the  piece.  It  is  nothing  if  not  defi- 
nite in  its  assertlveness  that  the  white 
race  must  dominate  the  black  and  that 
no  people  are  better  able  to  preach  this 
doctrine  than  those  of  the  South  who 
have  waded  through  blood  in  their 
struggle  to  throw  off  the  yoke  that  was 
placed  upon  their  shoulders  when  a 
scratch  of  a  pen  threw  over  the  land 
they  owned  a  horde  of  incapable  black- 
skinned  people  clothed  with  equal 
rights.  The  yoke  has  been  thrown  off. 
but  it  is  still  neaiby  and  Mr.  Dixon 
says  he  wants  to  demonstrate,  by  p^gea 
from  the  past,  why  it  must  never  be 
borne  by  wh:*?  people  again 

"The  Clansman"  only  reiterates  to 
southern  people  what  they  already 
know  But  in  the  process  of  doing  so. 
its  author  has  rreated  a  play  strong, 
virile,  replete  xvith  sentiment,  sparkling 
comedy  and  thrilling  climaxes  of  re- 
U  maskable  power. 

With  one  or  two  slight  alterations  the 
play  could  be  improved.  The  tracing 
of  the  somewhat  cuftai'ed  ancestry  of 
a  young  negro  is  not  exactly  palatable 
to  a  refined   audience. 

The  Cast  Well  Selected. 
The  cast  has  been  excellently  selected 
in  the  main  Georgia  Welles  as  Elsie 
Stoneman  instantly  won  her  auditors  by 
her  unaffected  methods  and  displayed 
great  power  in  the  strong  emotional 
scenes.  Franklin  Ritchie  was  a  close 
favorite  as  Ben  Cameron  .the  young 
chief  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan.  One  of  the 
strongest  roles  of  the  play  was  that  of 
Silas  Lynch,  the  negro  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  South  Carolina,  as  played  by 
Austin  W^ebb  The  character  is  an  ab- 
solutely ne^v  one  to  the  stage  John 
B  Cooke  was  equally  successful  in  por- 
traying the  role  of  Austin  Stoneman.  a 
character  closely  moulded  after  Thad- 
eus  Stevens,  the  leader  of  the  radical 
"  j-epublicans  In  congress  during  the  Re- 
construction period.  Theodore  Kehr- 
wald  as  Nelse.  Maude  Durand  as  Eve, 
and  John  B.  Hymer  as  Aleck,  brought 
out  effectively  the  ricch  comedy  of  the 
southern  darkey  characters  that  they 
portrayed.  Other  hits  were  made  by 
little  Violet  Mersereau.  Charles  Malles 
and  Charles  Avery. 

Mr.    Dixon's    Speech. 

At  the  end  of  the  third  act  the  calls 
for  the  author- playwright  were  long 
and  pronounced  and  finally  Mr.  Dixon 
appeared  before  the  curtain.  Then 
pandemonium  broke  loose.  Cheers 
rent  the  ^ir,  handkerchiefs  were 
waved  and  the  American  method  of 
applause,  hand  clapping,  seemed  tame. 
The  man  for  whom  the  ovation  was  in- 
tended stood  bowing  and  smiling  and 
apparently  calm  in  what  was  remarked 
by  many  to  b^  the  most  glorious  mo- 
ment of  his  life.  At  last  things  be- 
came quiet  enough  for  him  to  make  him- 
self heard.    He  said  in  part: 

"I  want  you  all  to  know  how  much 
I  appreciate  the  wonderful  reception 
you  have  given  my  play  tonight.  I 
want  to  thank  you  for  the  players,  the 
manageme  nt  and  for  myself.  Foi- 
fifty-two  years  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  has 
maligned  the  south  and  I  can  only  hope 
that  'The  Clansman'  may  last  that  long 
and  accomplish  as  much  for  the  other 
side    of    the    great    question. 

"My  object  is  to  teach  the  north,  the 
young  north,  what  it  has  never  known 
— the  awful  suffering  of  the  white  man 
during  the  dreadful  reconstruction  pe- 
riod. I  'believe  that  Almighty  God 
anointed  the  white  meri  of  the  south 
by  their  suffering  during  that  time  Im- 
mediately after  the  Civil  war  to  dem- 
(Contlnued  on  Page  J.) 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH   OF    THE    AUTHOR 

THOMAS    DIXON,   Jr. 

BV 

K.    F.    H  A  R  K  1  N  S 

■  rom   his   volume   "Among  Men  Who   Have    Written  Famous 
Books"  by    permission   of   L.   C.   Payie  &   Co.,  Boston. 


■  rrni 


'try^HE  LEOPARD'S  SPOTS,"  by  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr., 
which  Doiibleday,  Page  &  Co.  pubUslied  in  Marcli, 
igo2,  is  by  all  odds  the  most  remarkable  of  the 
many  recent  successful  first  novels.  Until  lately  a  success- 
ful first  novel  was  a  rarity ;  now  it  is  almost  a  common- 
place. "The  Leopard's  Spots,"  though  not  so  popular  as 
some,  is  the  most  remarkable  of  all.  Max  Nordau  says  that 
it  has  deliberately  undone  the  work  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe. 
At  least,  it  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  South's  long-deferred 
answer  to  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  In  the  twelvemonth  follow- 
ing its  publication  one  hundred  thousand  copies  were  sold. 

Strictly  speaking,  "The  Leopard's  Spots"  is  not  so  much  an 
answer  as  a  sequel  to  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  By  portraying  its 
abuses,  Mrs.  Stowe  dealt  slavery  a  blow  from  which  it  never 
recovered.  That  slavery  cloaked  fearful  abuses  no  Southerner 
— not  even  Mr.  Dixon  himself — denies,  or  could  honestly  deny. 
But  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  did  not  look  forward  to  the  conse- 
quences of  the  emancipation  of  the  negro ;  and  that  these  con- 
sequences are  troublesome,  and  often  fearful,  no  Northerner 
— not  even  one  of  Garrison's  sons — could  honestly  deny.  The 
relation  between  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  and  "The  Leopard's 
Spots,"  therefore,  is  simply  local.  Mrs.  Stowe  was  not  re- 
sponsible for  the  scalawags  who  took  possession  of  the  South 
after  the  war ;  nor  was  Mr.  Dixon  responsible  for  the  abuses 
inflicted  upon  helpless  and  innocent  negroes,  both  male  and 
female,  before  the  war. 

But,  after  all  has  been  said,  the  negro  problem  still  re- 
mains ;  and  this  is  the  problem  which  the  Virginia  novelist 
begs  his  readers  to  consider.  "Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his 
skin  or  the  leopard  his  spots?"  Can  the  thoughtful  white 
man  ever  admit  the  negro  to  full  social  and  political  equality? 
Possibly  some  Northerners  would  vote  for  a  negro  of  Dr. 
Booker  T.  Washington's  stamp  for  President  of  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  had  Doctor  Washington  at  dinner 
in  the  White  House.  But  would  the  most  sympathetic  North- 
ern negromaniac,  a  refined,  aristocratic  white  man,  encourage 
and  permit  a  negro  to  marry  into  his  family  ? 

The  substance  of  Mr.  Di.xon's  argument,  which  repudiates 
the  idea  that  absolute  equality  between  Caucasian  and  Ethio- 
pian exist  in  the  United  States,  lies  in  the  chapter  entitled 
"Equality  with  a  Reservation." 

That  scene  presents  the  negro  problem  stripped  of  all  its 
shams  and  subterfuges.  It  is  a  violent  picture.  The  effect 
might  have  been  produced  more  quietly  and  more  truthfully. 

Naturally  "The  Leopard's  Spots"  aroused  much  hostile  criti- 
cism, based  on  the  allegation  that  it  appealed  to  prejudice  and 
that  it  raked  up  dead  issues.  The  author  replied  in  a  letter 
from  which  we  quote  these  few  paragraphs  : 

"I  have  not  sought  to  arouse  race  hatred  or  prejudice.  For 
the  negro  I  have  the  friendliest  feelings  and  the  profoundest 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

pity.     What  I  have  attempted  to  show  is  that  this  nation  is  now- 
beginning  to  face  an  apparently  iiisohible  problem. 

"I  claim  the  book  is  an  authentic  human  document,  and  I 
know  it  is  the  most  important  moral  deed  of  my  life.  There 
is  not  a  bitter  or  malignant  sentence  in  it.  It  may  shock  the 
prejudices  of  those  who  have  idealized  or  worshipped  the  negro 
as  canonized  in  'Uncle  Tom.'  Is  it  not  time  they  heard  the 
whole  truth  ?  Thev  have  learned  only  one  side  for  forty 
years.     .     .     . 

"The  only  question  for  a  critic  to  determine  when  discuss- 
ing my  moral  right  to  publish  such  a  book  is  this :  Is  the  record 
of  life  given  important  and  authentic?  If  eighteen  millions 
of  Southern  people,  who  at  present  rule,  believe  what  my  book 
expresses,  is  it  not  well  to  know  it  ?  I  assert  that  they  do  be- 
lieve it,  and  the  number  of  Southern  white  people  to-day 
who  disagree  with  'The  Leopard's  Spots'  could  all  be  housed 
on  a  half-acre  lot.  I  challenge  anv  man  to  deny  this.  If  it 
is  true,  is  it  not  of  tremendous  importance  that  the  whole  na- 
tion shall  know  it?" 

Comparatively  speaking,  the  author  of  "The  Leopard's 
Spots"  is  still  a  young  man.  He  was  born  in  Cleveland  county. 
North  Carolina,  January  ii,  1864.  His  father  was  a  well-known 
Baptist  minister.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  Thomas  was  grad- 
uated from  Wake  Forest  College,  of  his  native  State,  and.  by 
the  wav,  the  alma  mater  of  the  hero  of  the  novel.  Then  Wr. 
Dixon  entered  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  as  a  spe- 
cial student  in  history  and  politics.  This  advantage  was 
gained  by  means  of  a  scholarship.  The  following  year,  1884, 
he  took  up  the  study  of  law  at  the  Greensboro  (North  Caro- 
lina) Law  School,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1886. 
That  same  year  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  all  the  courts 
in  the  State,  including  the  United  States  district  courts,  and 
also  to  the  bar  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  at  Wash- 
ington. However,  with  characteristic  restlessness,  he  resigned 
these  privileges,  in  October.  1886,  to  enter  the  ministry.  Seven 
months  before  he  had  been  married  to  Miss  Harriett  Bussey, 
of  Montgomery,  Alabama. 

It  would  be  a  rather  difficult  task  to  note  in  an  orderly 
fashion  all  the  steps  that  Mr.  Dixon  took  from  his  graduation 
at  Wake  Forest  College  to  his  entrance  into  the  ministry.  For 
one  thing,  he  was  a  member  of  the  North  Carolina  Legislature 
from  1884  to  1886;  but  other  pursuits  seem  to  have  lessened 
legislative  attractions  for  him.  At  the  same  time,  in  1884,  he 
must  have  been  a  curious,  if  not  a  powerful,  legislator,  for  he 
was  then  only  twenty  years  old,  and  consequently  not  a  voter. 
A  young  man  to  have  been  affected  by  the  buzzing  of  the 
political  bee ! 

In  1887,  after  his  ordination,  he  was  elected  pastor  of  a 
Baptist  church  in  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  During  the  follow- 
ing year  he  occupied  a  Baptist  pulpit  in  Boston,  and  the  next 
year  he  accepted  a  call  to  New  York.  There  his  restlessness 
waned,  for  there  he  remained  until  1899.  Before  the  close  of 
his  ministry  he  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  attracting  larger  con- 
gregations than  any  other  Protestant  preacher  in  the  country. 
At  any  rate,  his  ministration  was  remarkably  popular ;  and 
when  he  pleased  he  could  preach  a  highly  sensational  sermon. 
Many  of  his  pulpit  utterances  are  to  be  found  in  the  books 
which  he  compiled  prior  to  his  leaving  New  York — "Living 
Problems  in  Religion  and  Social  Science"   (1891),  "What  Is 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

Religion?"  (1902),  "Sermons  on  Ingcrsoll"  (1894),  and  the 
"Failure  of  Protestantism  in  New  York"  (1897).  The  last  book 
may  be  said  to  have  foretold  his  departure  from  the  ministry. 
As  pastor  of  the  People's  Church  he  rose  to  more  than  local 
prominence  by  reason  of  his  freedom  and  originality  of  thought, 
his  vigor  of  expression,  and  his  independence  of  action.  He 
proved  on  many  occasions  that  he  was  not  a  man  to  be  fet- 
tered by  traditions  or  by  customs  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  he 
stood  afar  from  radicalism.  His  faith  was  as  strong  at  the 
end  of  his  ministry  as  at  the  start,  and  his  independence  con- 
cerned the  lesser  restraints.  He  did  not  hesitate,  for  instance, 
to  go  hunting  with  a  gun — which  is  not  exactly  a  clerical  occu- 
pation. 

It  was  as  a  preacher,  by  the  way,  that  Mr.  Dixon  first  be- 
came identified  with  fiction.  Camden,  the  heroic  preacher  who 
figures  in  one  of  Lilian  Bell's  stories,  was  drawn  from  the 
same  man  who  afterward  drew  the  heroic  figure  of  Charles 
Gaston  in  "The  Leopard's  Spots." 

Nearly  every  educated  imaginative  boy  at  some  time  feels 
disposed  to  write  books.  Our  North  Carolina  boy  was  no  ex- 
ception to  this  rule ;  and  though  law,  and  afterward  religion, 
drew  him  away  from  literature,  he  has  returned  to  it  as  to  a 
first  love.  After  leaving  the  People's  Temple  he  spent  much 
of  his  time  lecturing;  and,  indeed,  he  is  one  of  the  most  pop- 
ular lecturers  in  America.  But  he  kept  literature  in  mind,  and 
simply  awaited  his  theme — his  opportunity. 

"The  Leopard's  Spots"  simmered  in  his  mind  for  more  than 
a  year.  Almost  every  day  something  went  into  the  mental  pot 
— some  idea,  some  fact  found  in  an  obscure  quarter,  some  new 
answer  to  an  old  argument.  The  actual  writing  of  the  novel 
occupied  about  sixty  days.  Part  of  the  writing  was  done  in 
a  deserted  cabin  on  the  shore  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  across  from 
"Elmington,"  the  author's  estate;  and  part  was  done  in  the 
spare  hours  of  a  lecture  tour. 

This  tour  was  full  of  distraction.  There  is  a  story  which  tells 
how  a  peremptory  dinner  call  at  a  hotel  brought  him  moodily 
down-stairs.  As  he  was  entering  the  dining-room,  a  black  hall- 
boy  pulled  his  sleeve  and  said,  "  'Scuse  me,  sub ;  but  I  reck'n 
vou's  forgot  sump'n."  "Have  I?"  said  Mr.  Dixon,  puzzled. 
"What  is  it?"  "You's  sutunly  forgot  all  'bout  dat  collah  an' 
necktie."  Sure  enough,  in  his  excitement  he  had  overlooked 
his  neckwear,  and  he  returned  to  his  room  thankful  that  his 
omission  was  not  worse.  He  does  not  mind  telling  a  story  on 
himself. 

"Elmington  Manor,"  the  author's  new  home  in  Divondale, 
Virginia,  is  a  truly  magnificent  estate.  The  five  hundred  acres 
comprise  all  the  attractions  of  the  country  and  the  seashore. 
Quail,  woodcock,  and  wild  turkey  abound ;  there  are  twenty- 
five  acres  of  oyster  beds ;  there  is  a  beach  a  mile  and  a  half 
long ;  there  are  three  hundred  large  shade  trees  on  the  lawn ; 
the  white  house,  with  its  imposing  portico,  contains  thirty-five 
rooms,  and  the  drive  from  the  porch  to  the  front  gate  is  two 
miles  long.  The  log  cabin  in  which  the  author  works  was 
planned  by  him  and  built  by  negroes  under  his  supervision. 
Across  the  creek  from  "Elmington"  and  the  five  hundred  acres 
roundabout  were  once  among  the  possessions  of  the  Indian 
princess,  Pocahontas. 


NELSE:  "NOW  DES    LISTEN   DAT  CHILE !"— Act  L 


Mr.  Dixon's  Famous  Articles 

ON 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO 
THE  STORY  OF  THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN  and 
WHAT  OUR  NATION  OWES  TO  THE  KLAN 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO 

and  Booker  T.  Washington's  Work 


Containing   Some   Sentences  Omitted   in    The  Saturday 
Evening  Post  Article. 


FOR  Mr.  ]5ooker  T.  Washington  as  a  man  and  leader  of 
his  race  I  have  always  had  the  warmest  admiration. 
His  life  is  a  romance  which  appeals  to  the  heart  of 
universal  humanity.  The  story  of  a  little  ragged,  barefooted 
piccaninny  who  lifted  his  eyes  from  a  cabin  in  the  hills  of  Vir- 
ginia, saw  a  vision  and  followed  it,  until  at  last  he  presides  over 
the  richest  and  most  powerful  institution  of  learning  in  the 
South,  and  sits  down  with  crowned  heads  and  Presidents,  has 
no  parallel  even  in  the  Tales  of  the  Arabian  Nights. 

The  spirit  of  the  man,  too,  has  always  impressed  me  with  its 
breadth,  generosity  and  wisdom.  The  aim  of  his  work  is  noble 
and  inspiring.  As  I  understand  it  from  his  own  words,  it  is 
"to  make  Negroes  producers,  lovers  of  labor,  honest,  independ- 
ent, good."  His  plan  for  doing  this  is  to  lead  the  Negro  to  the 
goal  through  the  development  of  solid  character,  intelligent  in- 
dustry and  material  acquisition. 

Only  a  fool  or  a  knave  can  find  fault  with  such  an  ideal.  It 
rests  squarely  on  the  eternal  verities.  And  yet  it  will  not  solve 
the  Negro  problem  nor  bring  us  within  sight  of  its  solution. 
Upon  the  other  hand,  it  will  only  intensify  that  problem's  dan- 
gerous features,  complicate  and  make  more  difficult  its  ultimate 
settlement. 

It  is  this  tragic  fact  to  which  I  am  trying  to  call  the  attention 
of  the  nation. 

I  have  for  the  Negro  race  only  pity  and  sympathy,  though 
every  large  convention  of  Negroes  since  the  appearance  of  my 
first  historical  novel  on  the  race  problem  have  gone  out  of  their 
way  to  denounce  me  personally  and  declare  my  books  carica- 
tures and  libels  on  their  people.  Their  mistake  is  a  natural 
one.  My  books  are  hard  reading  for  a  Negro,  and  yet  the 
Negroes,  in  denouncing  them,  are  unwittingly  denouncing  one 
of  their  best  friends. 

I  have  been  intimately  associated  with  Negroes  since  the 
morning  of  my  birth  during  the  Civil  War.  My  household 
servants  are  all  Negroes.  I  took  them  to  Boston  with  me, 
moved  them  to  New  York,  and  they  now  have  entire  charge 
of  my  Virginia  home.  The  first  row  I  ever  had  on  the  Negro 
problem   was   when   I   moved   to   Boston    from  the   South    to 


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THE  FUTURI-.  OF   I  HE  SEGliO 

lake  cliarge  of  a  fashionable  chuieli  at  the  Hub.  I  attempted 
to  import  my  baby's  Negro  nurse  into  a  Boston  hotel.  The 
proprietor  informed  me  that  no  "coon"  could  occupy  a  room 
in  his  house  in  any  capacity,  cither  as  guest  or  servant.  I  gave 
him  a  piece  of  my  mind  and  left  within  an  hour. 

.As  a  friend  of  the  Negro  race  I  claim  that  he  should  have 
ihe  op])ortunity  for  the  highest,  noblest  and  freest  dcvelop- 
iiK-nl  of  his  full,  rounded  manhood.  He  has  never  had  this 
(ijiportunity  in  America,  either  North  or  South,  and  he  never 
can  have  it.    The  forces  against  him  are  overwhelming. 

My  books  and  play  are  simply  merciless  records  of  condi- 
tions as  they  exist,  conditions  that  can  have  but  one  ending  if 
they  are  not  honestly  and  fearlessly  faced.  The  Civil  War 
abolished  chattel  slavery.  It  did  not  settle  the  Negro  prob- 
lem. It  settled  the  Union  question  and  created  the  Negro 
])roblem.  Frederick  Harrison,  the  English  philosopher,  during 
his  visit  to  America  two  years  ago,  declared  that  the  one  great 
shadow  which  clouds  the  future  of  the  American  Republic  is 
the  approaching  tragedy  of  the  irreconcilable  conflict  between 
the  Negro  and  White  Man  in  the  development  of  our  society. 
Mr.  James  Bryce  recently  made  a  similar  statement. 

Sixty   Million    Negroes 

If  allowed  to  remain  here,  the  Negro  race  in  the  United 
States  will  number  60,000,000  at  the  end  of  this  century  by 
their  present  rate  of  increase.  Think  of  what  this  means  for  a 
moment  and  you  face  the  gravest  problem  which  ever  puzzled 
the  brain  of  statesman  or  philosopher.  No  such  problem  ever 
before  confronted  the  white  man  in  his  recorded  history.  It 
cannot  be  whistled  down  by  opportunists,  politicians,  weak- 
minded  optimists  or  female  men.  It  must  be  squarely  met  and 
fought  to  a  finish. 

Several  classes  of  people  at  present  obstruct  any  serious  con- 
sideration of  this  question — the  pot-house  politician,  the  os- 
trich man,  the  pooh-pooh  man,  and  the  benevolent  old  maid. 
The  politician  is  still  busy  over  the  black  man's  vote  in  doubt- 
ful States.  The  pooh-pooh  man  needs  no  definition — he  was 
born  a  fool.  The  benevolent  old  maid  contributes  every  time 
the  hat  is  passed  and  is  pretty  sure  to  do  as  much  harm  as 
good  in  the  long  run  to  any  cause.  The  ostrich  man  is  the 
funniest  of  all  this  group  of  obstructionists,  for  he  is  a  man 
of  brains  and  capacity. 

I  have  a  friend  of  this  kind  in  New  York.  He  got  after  me 
the  other  day  somewhat  in  this  fashion : 

"\\  hat  do  you  want  to  keep  agitating  this  infernal  question 
for?  There's  no  danger  in  it  unless  you  stir  it.  Let  it  alone. 
Hush  it  up  and  it  will  take  care  of  itself.  I  grant  you  that 
the  Negro  race  is  a  poor,  worthless  parasite,  whose  criminal 
and  animal  instincts  threaten  society.  But  the  Negro  is  here 
to  stay.  We  must  train  him.  It  is  the  only  thing  we  can  do. 
So  what's  the  use  to  waste  your  breath  ?" 

"But  what  about  the  future  when  you  have  educated  the 
Negro?"  I  asked  timidly. 

"Let  the  future  take  care  of  itself!"  the  ostrich  man  snorted. 
"We  live  in  the  present.  What's  the  use  to  worry  about  Hell? 
If  I  can  scramble  through  this  world  successfully  I'll  take  my 
chance  with  the  hell  problem !" 

My  friend  forgets  that  this  was  precisely  the  line  of  argu- 
ment of  our  fathers  over  the  question  of  Negro  slavery.    When 


Tim  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO 

the  constructive  statciiien  of  Virginia  (called  pessimists  and 
infidels  in  their  day)  foresaw  the  coming  baptism  of  fire  and 
blood  ('6 1  to  '65)  over  the  Negro  slave,  they  attempted  to  de- 
stroy the  slave  trade  and  abolish  slavery.  My  friend  can  find 
his  very  words  in  the  answers  of  their  opponents.  "Let  the 
future  take  care  of  itself!  The  slaves  are  here  and  here  to 
stay.  Greater  evils  await  their  freedom.  We  need  their  labor. 
Let  the  question  alone.  There  is  no  danger  in  it  unless  you 
stir  it." 

The  truth  which  is  gradually  forcing  itself  upon  thoughtful 
students  of  our  national  life  is  that  no  scheme  of  education  or 
religion  can  solve  the  race  problem,  and  that  Mr.  Booker  T. 
Washington's  plan,  however  high  and  noble,  can  only  in- 
tensify its  difficulties. 

This  conviction  is  based  on  a  few  big  fundamental  facts, 
which  no  pooh-poohing,  ostrich-dodging,  weak-minded  philan- 
thropy or  political  rant  can  obscure. 

The  first  one  is  that  no  amount  of  education  of  any  kind, 
industrial,  classical  or  religious,  can  make  a  Negro  a  white 
man  or  bridge  the  chasm  of  the  centuries  which  separate  him 
from  the  white  man  in  the  evolution  of  human  civilization. 

Expressed  even  in  the  most  brutal  terms  of  Anglo-Saxon 
superiority  there  is  here  an  irreducible  fact.  It  is  possibly  true, 
as  the  Negro,  Professor  Kelly  Miller,  claims,  that  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  is  "the  most  arrogant  and  rapacious,  the  most  exclu- 
sive and  intolerant  race  in  history."  Even  so,  what  answer 
can  be  given  to  his  cold-blooded  proposition:  "Can  you  change 
the  color  of  the  Negro's  skin,  the  kink  of  his  hair,  the  bulge 
of  his  lip  or  the  beat  of  his  heart  with  a  spelling-book  or  a  ma- 
chine ?" 

Lincoln's  Opinion 

No  man  has  expressed  this  idea  more  clearly  than  Abraham 
Lincoln  when  he  said  : 

"There  is  a  pitvsieal  difference  betivccii  the  white  and  black 
races  which,  1  believe,  zvill  forever  forbid  them  living  together 
on  terms  of  social  and  political  equality." 

Whence  this  physical  difference?  Its  secret  lies  in  the  gulf 
of  thousands  of  years  of  inherited  progress  which  separates 
the  child  of  the  Aryan  from  the  child  of  the  African. 

Buckle  in  his  History  of  Civilization  says:  "The  actions  of 
bad  men  produce  only  temporary  evil,  the  actions  of  good  men 
only  temporary  good.  The  discoveries  of  genius  alone  re- 
main :  it  is  to  them  we  owe  all  that  we  now  have ;  they  are  for 
all  ages  and  for  all  times ;  never  young  and  never  old,  the\' 
bear  the  seeds  of  their  own  lives ;  they  are  essentially  cumula- 
tive." 

Judged  by  this  supreme  test,  what  contribution  to  human 
progress  have  the  millions  of  Africans  who  inhabit  this  planet 
made  during  the  past  four  thousand  years?  Absolutely  noth- 
ing. And  yet,  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington  in  a  recent  burst 
of  eloquence  over  his  educational  work  boldly  declares : 

"The  Negro  race  has  developed  more  rapidly  in  the  thirty 
years  of  its  freedom  than  the  Latin  race  has  in  one  thousand 
years  of  freedom." 

Think  for  a  moment  of  the  pitiful  puerility  of  this  statement 
falling  from  the  lips  of  the  greatest  and  wisest  leader  the 
Negro  race  has  yet  produced  ! 

Italy  is  the  mother  of  genius,  the  inspiration  of  the  ages,  the 


Till-  m-rcRi-  OF  THE  negro 

creator  of  architecture,  agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce, 
law,  science,  philosoi)liy,  finance,  church  organization,  sculp- 
ture, music,  painting  and  literature,  and  yet  the  American 
Negro  in  thirty  years  has  outstripiK-d  her  thousands  of  years 
of  priceless  achievement ! 

Education  is  the  development  of  that  which  is.  Tlie  Negro 
has  held  the  Continent  of  Africa  since  the  dawn  of  history, 
crunching  acres  of  diamonds  beneath  his  feet.  Yet  he  never 
picked  one  up  from  the  dust  until  a  white  man  showed  to  him 
its  light.  His  land  swarmed  with  jjowerful  and  docile  ani- 
mals, yet  he  never  built  a  harness,  cart  or  sled.  .\  hunter  by 
necessity,  he  never  made  an  ax,  spear  or  arrowhead  worth 
preserving  beyond  the  nmmcnt  of  its  use.  In  a  land  of  stone 
and  timber,  he  never  carved  a  block,  sawed  a  foot  of  lumber 
or  built  a  house  save  of  broken  sticks  and  mud.  and  for  four 
thousand  years  he  gazed  upon  the  sea  yet  never  dreamed  a  sail. 

Who  is  the  greatest  Negro  that  ever  lived  according  to  Mr. 
Booker  T.  Washington?  Through  all  his  books  he  speaks  this 
man's  name  with  bated  breath  an<l  uncovered  head — "Fred- 
erick Douglass  of  sainted  memory!"  And  what  did  Saint 
Frederick  do?  Spent  a  life  in  bombastic  vituperation  of  the 
men  whose  genius  created  the  .\mcrican  Republic,  wore  him- 
self out  finally  drawing  his  salary  as  a  Federal  of=fice-holder. 
and  at  last  achieved  the  climax  of  sainthood  by  marrying  a 
white  woman  ! 

What  Education  Cannot   Do 

Savs  the  author  of  Napoleon,  Honorable  Thomas  E.  Wat- 
son:  "Education  is  a  good  thing,  but  it  never  did  and  never 
will  alter  the  essential  character  of  any  man  or  race  of  men." 

I  repeat,  education  is  the  development  of  that  which  is.  Be- 
hold the  man  whom  the  rags  of  slavery  once  concealed— nine 
millions  strong!  This  creature,  with  a  racial  record  of  four 
thousand  years  of  incapacity,  half-child,  half-animal,  the  sport 
of  impulse,  whim  and  conceit,  pleased  with  a  rattle,  tickled  with 
a  straw,  a  being  who,  left  to  his  will,  roams  at  night  and  sleeps 
in  the  day,  whose  native  tongue  has  framed  no  word  of  love, 
whose  passions  once  aroused  are  as  the  tiger's— equality  is  the 
law  of  our  life ! — when  he  is  educated  and  ceases  to  till  his 
useful  sphere  as  servant  and  peasant,  what  are  you  going  to  do 
with  him? 

The  second  big  fact  which  confronts  the  thoughtful  patriotic 
American  is  that  the  greatest  calamity  which  could  possibly 
befall  this  Republic  would  be  the  coiruption  of  our  national 
character  by  the  assimilation  of  the  Negro  race.  I  have  never 
seen  a  white  man  of  any  brains  who  disputes  this  fact.  I  have 
never  seen  a  Negro  of  any  capacity  who  did  not  deny  it. 

A  distinguished  Negro  college  professor  recently  expressed 
himself  as  to  the  future  American  in  one  of  our  great  period- 
icals as  follow  s : 

"All  race  prejudice  will  be  eradicated.  Physically,  the  new 
race  will  be  much  the  stronger.  Tt  will  be  endowed  with  a 
higher  intelligence  and  clearer  conception  of  Cod  than  the 
whites  of  the  West  have  ever  had.  It  will  be  much  less  ma- 
terial than  the  American  white  of  to-day.  It  will  be  especially 
concerned  with  the  things  of  the  mind,  and  moral  excellence 
will  become  the  dominant  factor  in  the  life  of  the  new  nation. 
The  new  race  is  to  gain  more  from  the  Black  element  than 
from  the  White." 


z 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO 

We  have  here  an  accurate  statement  of  the  passionate  faith 
of  ninety-nine  Negroes  out  of  every  hundred.  Professor  Du 
Rois,  author  of  "The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,"  undouhtcdly  believes 
this.  His  book  is  a  remarkable  contribution  to  the  literature 
of  our  race  problem.  In  it  for  the  first  time  we  sec  the  naked 
soul  of  a  Negro  beating  itself  to  death  against  the  bars  in 
which  Aryan  society  has  caged  him !  No  white  man  with  a 
soul  can  read  this  book  without  a  tear.  Mr.  Charles  W.  Ches- 
nutt,  the  Negro  novelist,  believes  in  amalgamation,  for  he  told 
me  so.  Profes-sor  Kelly  Miller,  the  distinguished  Negro 
teacher  of  Washington,  believes  it.  In  a  recent  article  he  de- 
clares: 

"It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  conceive  of  two  races  occupy- 
ing the  same  area,  speaking  the  same  language,  worshiping 
according  to  the  same  ritual,  and  endowed  with  the  same 
political  and  civil  privileges  without  ultimately  fusing.  .Social 
equality  is  not  an  individual  matter,  as  many  contend,  but  is 
rigorously  under  the  control  of  public  sentiment." 

I  commend  the  solid  logic  of  these  sentences  from  a  thought- 
ful  Negro  to  the  illustrious  Society  of  Pooh-Poohs. 

Where  Booker  Washington  Is  Silent 

What  is  the  attitude  of  Booker  T.  Washington  on  this 
vital  issue?  You  will  search  his  books  and  listen  to  his 
lectures  in  vain  for  any  direct  answer.  Why?  Because, 
if  he  dared  to  say  what  he  really  in  his  soul  of  souls  be- 
lieves, it  would  end  his  great  career,  both  North  and  South. 
In  no  other  way  has  he  shown  his  talent  as  an  organizer  and 
leader  of  his  people  with  such  consummate  skill  as  in  the 
dexterity  with  which  he  has  for  twenty  years  dodged  this  issue, 
holding  steadily  the  good-will  of  the  Southern  white  man  and 
the  Northern  philanthropist.  Beyond  all  doubt  he  is  the  great- 
est diplomat  his  race  has  ever  produced. 

Yet  he  who  reads  between  the  lines  of  his  written  and  spoken 
words  will  find  the  same  purpose  and  the  same  faith  in  that 
which  his  more  blunt  and  fearless  brethren  have  honestly  and 
boldly  proclaimed.  He  shows  this  in  his  worship  of  Frederick 
Douglass.  In  his  book,  "The  Future  of  the  American  Negro,'" 
we  find  this  careful  sentence : 

"To  state  in  detail  just  what  place  the  black  man  will  occupy 
in  the  South  as  a  citizen  when  he  has  developed  in  the  direction 
named  is  beyond  the  wisdom  of  any  one." 

Yet  on  page  69  he  says  : 

"The  surest  way  for  the  Negro  to  reach  the  highest  positions 
is  to  prepare  himself  to  fill  well  at  the  present  the  basic  occu- 
pations"— independent  industries,  of  course — for,  mark  you, 
"Tiiskegee  Institute  is  not  a  servant-training  school!" 

;\gain,  on  pages  83  and  85  we  are  told:  "There  is  an  un- 
mistakable influence  that  comes  over  a  white  man  when  he  sees 
a  black  man  living  in  a  two-story  brick  house  that  has  been 
paid  for.  I  need  not  stop  to  explain.  Just  in  so  far  as  we  can 
place  rich  Negroes  in  the  South  who  can  loan  money  to  white 
men,  this  race  question  will  disappear." 

Why  ? 

The  conclusion  is  obvious :  The  Negro  who  holds  a  mortgage 
on  a  white  man's  house  will  ultimately  demand  and  receive 
social  recognition  from  him. 

.\lthough  Mr.  Washington's  public  speech  is  careful  on  this 
dangerous   issue  of  .social  equality,  the   force  of   his  example 


f 


ELSIE:  "I  DO  LOVE  YOU  !"— Act  II. 


rilli  PUrVKF.  ()!■    I  HE  XECRO 

is  uiiinistakablc.  The  pathetic  eagerness  with  w  liich  lie  accepts 
invitations  from  the  white  man  leaves  nothing  to  the  imagina- 
tion as  to  his  leal  faith  and  desires.  Moreover,  he  persists  in 
sending  his  daughters  to  school  with  white  girls  in  the  North, 
notwithstanding  their  presence  is  a  source  of  annoyance  to 
the  faculty,  pupils  and  patrons  of  the  institution.  The  Negroes 
ha\e  as  fine  schools  for  girls  in  the  South  as  are  to  be  found 
in  America.  If  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington  does  not  believe  in 
social  e(iuality  and  does  not  teach  it,  why  butt  into  these  white 
schools  with  his  children?     .\ctions  speak  louder  than  words. 

The  simple  Inuh  is  he  does  believe  in  social  e(|uality  for  the 
races,  desires  it.  and  the  purpose  of  liis  great  work  is  to  nlti- 
iiialely  make  it  ineiitahle. 

C)n  ])age  66  of  his  "Future  of  the  American  Negro,"  he  says: 
"The  Jew,  who  was  once  in  about  the  same  position  as  the 
Negro  is  to-day.  has  now  recognition  because  he  has  entwined 
himself  al.nut  .\merica  in  a  business  and  industrial  way." 

Again,  his  conclusion  is  obvious.  The  absurdity  of  the  com- 
])arison,  however,  is  the  important  point  in  this  sentence,  not 
only  for  the  ])athetic  ignorance  of  history  it  displays  but  for 
the  levelation  of  the  writer's  secret  hopes  and  dreams. 

The  Jew   In  American   Life 

The  Jew  has  not  been  assimilated  into  our  civil  and 
social  life  because  of  his  money — but  for  a  very  different 
reason.  The  Jew  belongs  to  i:)ur  race,  the  same  great  di- 
vision of  humanit}'.  The  Semitic  group  of  the  white  race 
is,  all  in  all,  the  greatest  evolved  in  history.  Their  children 
have  ever  led  the  vanguard  of  human  progress  and  achieve- 
ments. A  great  historian  and  philosopher  once  said:  "Show 
me  a  man  of  transcendent  genius  at  any  period  of  the  world's 
history  and  I'll  show  you  a  man  with  Hebrew  blood  in  his 
veins."  (  )ur  prejudice  against  the  Jew  is  not  because  of  his 
inferiority,  but  because  of  his  genius.  We  are  afraid  of  him, 
we  Gentiles  who  meet  him  in  the  arena  of  life,  get  licked  and 
then  make  faces  at  him.  The  truth  is  the  Jew  had  achieved 
a  noble  civilization — had  his  jioets,  prophets,  priests  and  kings 
- — when  our  Ciermauic  ancestors  were  still  in  the  woods  crack- 
ing cocoauuts  and  hickor\  -nuts  with  monkeys.  We  have  assim- 
ilated the  Jew  because  his  daughter  is  beautiful  and  his  son 
strong  in  minil  and  body  ! 

Can  we  by  any  stretch  of  the  imagination  conceive  of  the 
assimilation  thus  of  our  nine  millions  of  Negroes  without  the 
extinction  of  national  character?  We  are  told  in  reply  that 
Alexander  Dumas  was  a  mulatto !  Kxactl\-.  And  had  France 
been  populated  with  en<iugh  men  of  the  Dumas  breed  she 
would  have  long  since  disappeared  from  the  earth  as  an  inde- 
pendent nation.  Dumas  possessed  enormous  talent  as  a  scrib- 
bler of  romance,  but  as  a  man  and  a  citizen  the  story  of  his 
life  is  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  civilization! 

The  trouble  with  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington's  work  is  that 
he  is  silently  preparing  us  for  the  future  heaven  of  Amalgama- 
tion— or  he  is  doing  soiiietliiiig  equally  as  dangerous,  namely, 
he  is  attempting  to  build  a  nation  inside  a  nation  of  two  hostile 
races.  In  this  event  he  is  storing  dynamite  beneath  the  path- 
way of  our  children — the  end  at  last  can  only  be  in  bloodshed. 

Mr.  Washington  is  not  training  Negroes  to  take  their  place 
in  any  industrial  system  of  the  South  in  which  the  white  man 
can  direct  or  control  him.     He  is  not  training  his  students  to 


X 
Z 


Z 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO 

be  servants  and  come  at  tlie  beck  and  call  of  any  man.  He  is 
training;  them  all  to  be  masters  of  men,  to  be  independent,  to 
own  and  operate  their  own  industries,  plant  their  own  fields, 
buy  and  sell  their  own  goods,  and  in  every  shape  and  form  de- 
stroy the  last  vestige  of  dependence  on  the  white  man  for  any- 
thing. 

I  do  not  say  this  is  not  laudable— I  do  not  say  that  it  is  not 
noble.  I  only  ask  what  will  be  its  end  for  the  Negro  when 
the  work  is  perfect?  Every  pupil  who  passes  through  Mr. 
Washington's  hands  ceases  forever  to  work  under  a  white  man. 
Not  only  so,  but  he  goes  forth  trained  as  an  evangelist  to  preach 
the  doctrine  of  separation  and  independence. 

The  Negro  remains  on  this  Continent  for  one  reason  only. 
The  Southern  white  man  has  needed  his  labor,  and,  therefore, 
has  fought  every  suggestion  of  his  removal.  But  when  he  re- 
fuses longer  to  work  for  the  white  man,  then  what  ? 

Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington  says  on  page  65  of  his  book: 
"The  Negro  must  live  for  all  time  beside  the  Southern  white 
man." 

On  what  sort  of  terms  are  they  to  live  together?  As  banker 
and  borrower?  Hardly,  if  the  Negro  is  the  banker.  Even 
now,  with  the  white  man  still  hugging  the  hoary  delusion  that 
he  can't  get  along  without  the  Negro,  he  is  being  forced  to 
look  to  the  Old  World  for  labor.  The  idea  that  a  white  man 
cannot  work  in  the  fields  of  the  South  is  exploded.  Only  one- 
third  of  the  cotton  crop  is  to-day  raised  bv  the  Negro.  Even 
now  the  relations  of  the  races,  with  the  Negro  an  integral  part 
of  the  white  man's  industrial  scheme,  become  more  and  more 
difficult. 

A  Gulf  That  Grows  Wider 

Professor  Kelly  Miller  says:  "It  is  a  matter  of  common 
observation  that  the  races  are  growing  further  and  further 
apart." 

Mr.  \\'ashington  says  on  this  point:  "For  the  sake  of  tlie 
Negro  and  the  Southern  white  man  there  are  many  things  in 
the  relations  of  the  two  races  that  must  soon  be  changed" 
(page  65).  The  point  I  raise  is  that  education  necessarily 
drives  the  races  further  and  further  apart,  and  Mr.  Washing- 
ton's brand  of  education  makes  the  gulf  between  them  if  any- 
thing a  little  deeper.  If  there  is  one  thing  a  Southern  white 
man  cannot  endure  it  is  an  educated  Negro.  What's  to  be  the 
end  of  it  if  the  two  races  are  to  live  forever  side  bv  side  in 
the  South? 

Mr.  Washington  says:  "Give  the  black  man  so  much  skill 
and  brains  that  he  can  cut  oats  like  the  white  man — then  he  can 
compete  with  him." 

And  then  the  real  tragedy  will  begin.  Does  any  sane  man 
believe  that  when  the  Negro  ceases  to  work  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Southern  white  man,  this  "arrogant,"  "rapacious" 
and  intolerant  race  will  allow  the  Negro  to  master  his  indus- 
trial system,  take  the  bread  from  his  mouth,  crowd  him  to  the 
wall  and  place  a  mortgage  on  his  house?  Competition  is  war 
—the  most  fierce  and  brutal  of  all  its  forms.  Could  fatuity 
reach  a  sublimer  height  than  the  idea  that  the  white  man  will 
stand  idly  by  and  see  this  performance?  What  will  he  do  when 
put  to  the  test  ?  He  will  do  exactly  what  his  white  neighbor  in 
the  North  does  when  the  Negro  threatens  his  bread— kill  him ! 
Whenever  a  white  man.  North,  South,  East  or  West,  tells 


<5 


Q 

o 
o 


THE  l-UTURE  Ol-  THE  NEGKO 

a  Negro  that  he  will  give  him  equality,  industrial,  political  or 
social,  lie  is  a  liar  and  the  truth  is  not  in  him. 

Abraham  Lincoln  foresaw  this  tragedy  when  he  wrote  his 
liniaiicipation  Proclamation,  and  he  asked  Congress  for  an 
appropriation  of  a  billion  dollars  to  colonize  the  whole  Negro 
race.  lie  never  believed  it  possible  to  assimilate  the  Negro  into 
oiu'  national  life.  'I'liis  nation  will  yet  come  back  to  Lincoln's 
I)lan,  still  so  eloquently  advocated  by  the  Negro  Bishop,  Henry 
M.  Turner. 

It  is  curious  how  the  baldheaded  assertion  of  a  lie  can  be 
repeated  and  repeated  until  millions  of  sane  people  will  accept 
the  bare  assertion  as  an  established  fact.  At  the  close  of  the 
War,  Mr.  Lincoln,  brooding  over  the  insoluble  problem  of  the 
Negro's  future  which  his  proclamation  had  created,  asked  (jen- 
eral  Benjamin  F.  Butler  to  devise  and  report  to  him  imme- 
diately a  plan  to  colonize  the  Negroes.  General  Butler,  naturally 
hostile  to  the  idea,  made  at  once  his  famous,  false  and  facetious 
report,  "that  ships  could  not  be  found  to  carry  the  Negro  babies 
to  Africa  as  fast  as  they  are  born !"  The  President  was  assas- 
sinated a  few  days  later.  This  lie  is  now  forty  odd  years  old, 
and  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington  actually  repeats  it  as  a  verbal 
inspiration,  though  entirely  unconscious  of  its  historic  origin. 

We  have  spent  about  $800,000,000  on  Negro  education  since 
the  War.  One-half  of  this  sum  would  have  been  sufficient  to 
have  made  Liberia  a  rich  and  powerful  Negro  state.  Liberia 
is  capable  of  supporting  every  Negro  in  America.  Why  not 
face  this  question  squarely?  We  are  temporizing  and  playing 
with  it.  All  our  educational  schemes  are  compromises  and 
temporary  makeshifts.  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington's  work  is 
one  of  noble  aims.  A  branch  of  it  should  be  immediately  estab- 
lished in  Monrovia,  the  capital  of  Liberia.  A  gift  of  ten  mil- 
lions would  do  this,  and  establish  a  colony  of  half  a  million 
Negroes  within  two  years.  They  could  lay  the  foundations  of 
a  free  black  republic,  which,  within  twenty-five  years,  would 
solve  our  race  problem  on  the  only  rational  basis  within  human 
power — friendly  colonization. 

We  owe  this  to  the  Negro.  At  present  we  are  deceiving  him 
and  allowing  him  to  deceive  himself.  He  hopes  and  dreams  of 
amalgamation,  forgetting  that  self-preservation  is  the  first  law 
of  Nature.  Our  present  attitude  of  hypocrisy  is  inhuman  and 
brutal  toward  a  weaker  race,  brought  to  our  shores  by  the  sins 
of  our  fathers.  We  owe  him  a  square  deal,  and  we  will  never 
give  it  to  him  on  this  Continent — we  cannot  give  it  to  him  tui- 
less  we  are  willing  to  surrender  our  birthright  and  sacrifice  the 
purity  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 


< 

5 


U 
V 


THK  S'lORY  OF  THK  KU  KLUX  KLAN. 

Il.'ANXOT  uiukTstaiid  llie  pig-headed  persistence  with 
which  the  South  continues  bhndly  to  vote  against  her 
own  interests !"  said  an  intelHgent  young  Northerner 
to  nie  just  after  the  last  Presidential  election. 

"It  does  look  funny,"  T  replied,  "for  otherwise  the  thing 
seems  to  have  been  unanimous.  But  did  you  ever  study  the 
period  of  Reconstruction?" 

"I  don't  know  wh.nt  tlu'  wnril  means,"  he  answered  with 
a  laugh. 

No  man  can  undcrstanil  current  politics  or  the  conditions 
of  the  Race  Problem  unless  he  knows  the  history  of  the  awful 
years  of  1865  to  1870.  Nor  can  he  understand  this  period 
until  he  has  mastered  the  story  of  the  rise,  growth,  degeneracy, 
and  death  of  two  secret  political  societies,  one  of  the  North 
called  "The  Union  League  of  America,"  the  other  of  the  South, 
known  officially  by  its  members  as  "The  Invisible  Empire," 
and,  popularly,  as  the  "Ku  Klux  Klan." 

The  bitterness  of  the  Civil  War  has  passed  from  the  hearts 
of  men,  but  the  legacy  of  the  Black  Plague  which  scourged  the 
South  during  the  period  of  Reconstruction  remains  to-day 
a  brooding  nightmare  for  the  Southerner,  threatening  with 
sinister  prophecies  the  future  of  the  Nation. 

The  Northern  conception  of  the  Ku  KIu.k  Klan  is  voiced  in 
a  recent  criticism  of  my  last  novel  by  an  ancient  Boston 
newspaper  thus : 

"He  reaches  the  acme  of  his  sectional  passions  when  he 
exalts  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  into  an  association  of  Southern 
patriots,  when  he  must  know,  or  else  be  strangely  ignorant 
of  American  history,  that  its  members  were  as  arrant  ruffians, 
desperadoes  and  scoundrels  as  ever  went  unhanged." 

If  this  be  true,  moral  miracles  have  been  w-rought  by  ruffians, 
desperadoes  and  scoundrels  which  require  study.  The  likt 
of  it  has  never  been  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  race,  and 
if  such  things  were  done  by  scoundrels  the  basis  of  ethics 
must  be  rebuilt  by  our  philosophers. 

The  question  is  not  merely  an  historical  one,  it  is  woven 
with  the  most  vital  and  hopeless  problem  of  American  life. 
Disinterested  foreign  critics  declare  with  one  accord  that  the 
Negro  problem  of  America  is  the  one  apparently  insoluble 
riddle  which  shadows  our  future.  Its  roots  strike  deep  into 
our  history,  spread  wide  into  our  everyday  life,  and  grip 
with  power  of  fate  the  souls  of  generations  unborn.  If  any 
man  think  this  an  academic  question  of  the  past  which  must 
be  determined  by  experts  in  dates  and  documents,  let  him  ask 
the  police  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago  and  St.  Louis 
into  whose  crowded  streets  and  tenements  the  Black  Man  is 
pushing  his  way. 

The  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  a  great  Law  and  Order  League  of 
mounted  night  cavalrymen  called  into  action  by  the  intolerable 
conditions  of  a  reign  of  terror  under  Negro  rule  in  the  South. 
It  was  the  answer  to  their  foes  of  an  indomitable  race  of  men, 
conquered,  betrayed,  disarmed  and  driven  to  desperation.  It 
was  the  old  answer  of  organized  manhood  to  organized  crime 
masquerading  under  the  forms  of  government. 

Its  rise  was  due  to  the  mind  of  no  leader.  It  was  an  acci- 
dent.    It  was  a  case  of  spontaneous  combustion. 

A  group  of  boys  at  Pulaski,  Tennessee,  organized  it  first 
as  a  local  fraternity.  They  found  a  name  in  the  Greek  work 
"Kuklos,"  a  band,  or  circle,  and  to  this  they  added  Clan,  and 


«=5 

as 


< 

m 


w 
2: 


riiE  sTOK)   ()!■'  Tin-:  ku  kllx  kl.in 

then  split  the  germ  word  iiitd  iwn  weird  nioiiosyliahles,  spelling 
the  Clan  with  a  K,  to  heighten  the  appeal  tn  the  super- 
stitious, and  lo,  the  awe-inspiring  "Ku    Khi\   Klaii!" 

'The  terror  of  these  silent  ghosts,  riding  in  llu'  night,  reduced 
the  Negro  race  to  an  immediate  and  profound  peace.  The  idea 
spread  to  an  adjoining  county  and  rapidly  over  the  state  of 
Tennessee  which  was  the  tirsl  to  pass  henealli  the  xoke  of 
Negro  supremacy. 

In  1867  a  secret  convention  of  peace-loving,  law-ahiding. 
God-fearing,  jiatriotic  Southerners  met  in  Nashville  and  or- 
ganized this  society  into  "The  Invisihle  Km])ire,''  adopted  a 
ritual,  and  adjourned.  They  met  in  the  ruins  of  an  old 
homestead  within  the  picket  lines  of  35,000  troops  sent  there 
to  enforce  the  rule  of  the  black  slave  over  his  former  master. 

As  the  young  German  patriots  of  1812  organized  their  strug- 
gle for  liberty  under  the  noses  of  the  garrisons  of  Napoleon, 
so  these  daring  men,  girt  by  ba\onets,  discussed  and  adopted 
under  the  cover  of  darkness  the  ritual  of  "The  Invisible  Em- 
pire." 

Within  a  few  months  this  Empire  had  overspread  a  terri- 
tory larger  than  modern  Europe  and  brought  order  out  of 
chaos.  The  triumph  which  they  achieved  was  one  of  incredible 
grandeur.  They  snatched  power  out  of  defeat  and  death,  and 
tore  the  fruits  of  victory  from  twenty  million  conquerors.  Such 
achievements  have  never  been  wrought  by  ruffians,  scoundrels 
and  desperadoes.  The  moral  grandeur  of  such  a  deed  gives  the 
lie  to  the  assertion. 

The  truth  of  history  is.  that,  as  originally  organized  and 
led,  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  the  guardian  of  civilization  in 
the  South  from  1867  to  1870  and  its  members  were  the  salt 
of  the  earth. 

Every  hope  of  relief  for  the  South  had  been  crushed.  The 
assassination  of  Lincoln  had  so  crazed  the  masses  of  the  North 
that  the  Radical  wing  of  the  ]iarty  in  power  could  propose  no 
outrage  too  monstrous  for  the  consideration  of  Congress.  Even 
a  bill  to  tear  from  the  starving  Southern  people  the  remnant 
of  their  property  left  by  the  war  and  give  it  to  the  negroes 
and  camp  followers  of  the  army  was  introduced  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  by  Thaddeus  Stevens,  the  responsible  leader 
of  the  Government,  and  boldly  championed  by  this  great  man 
with  the  audacity  of  genius  and  the  faith  of  a  fanatic. 

The  Negro  had  been  made  the  ruler  of  his  former  master 
who  was  disfranchised  and  disarmed.  The  hand  of  the  thief 
and  ruffian  clutched  at  every  man"s  throat.  The  Negro  con- 
trolled the  state,  county,  city  and  tow-n  governments.  Their 
insolence  grew  apace.  Their  women  were  taught  to  insult 
their  old  mistresses  and  mock  their  poverty  as  they  passed 
in  their  faded  dresses.  A  black  <lriver  in  a  town  near  mine, 
struck  a  white  child  of  six  with  a  whip,  and  when  the  mother 
protested  she  was  arrested  by  a  negro  policeman  ami  lined  ten 
dollars  by  a  negro  magistrate  for  insulting  a  freedman ! 

Thieves  looted  the  treasury  of  every  state  and  county,  and 
taxes  mounted  until  as  many  as  2,900  homesteads  of  white  men, 
many  of  whom  could  not  vote,  were  sold  for  taxes  in  a  single 
county. 

The  Negro  and  his  ally,  the  carpet-bag  adventurer,  had 
attained  undisputed  control  of  society  through  the  secret  oath- 
bound  order  known  as  "The  Union  League." 

The  white  people  of  the  South  at  first  scouted  the  idea  that 


EVE:    "I  SEE  HIM  COMIN'  TO  YOU  SWIF!"— Act  III. 


THE  STORY  ()!■    THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN 

the  negroes,  who  had  been  faithful  through  the  war,  could 
now  be  used  as  their  deadliest  foes  in  the  new  order  of  society. 
But  for  the  sijjns,  grip,  passwords,  and  mysterious  blue  flam- 
ing altar  of  "The  Union  League,"  the  whites  could  have 
held  the  friendship  of  their  former  slaves.  As  a  rule  the  ties 
which  bound  them  were  based  on  real  affection.  But  the 
League  did  its  work  well.  By  promises  to  the  slaves  of  forty 
acres  of  the  land  of  their  former  masters  linked  with  the 
wildest  theories  of  equality  and  dominion  over  those  who 
once  ruled  them,  bv  drill  in  arms  and  the  backing  of  trained 


Thaddus  Steveii.s — "But  for  Mr.  Stevens  there  ne\"er  would  have  been  a  Union 

League,  and  but  for  the  Union  League  there  never  would 

have  been  a  Ku   Klu.x   Kkin." 

garrisons,  a  gulf  betw'een  the  white  man  of  the  South  and 
the  Negro  was  dug  which  time  can  never  bridge.  Its  passions 
have  become  part  of  the  very  heart  beat  of  both  races. 

The  Union  League  of  America  was  organized  in  Cleveland. 
Ohio,  during  the  war  by  the  friends  of  Thaddeus  Stevens. 
the  Radical  leader  of  Congress.  Its  prime  object  was  the 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  the  South.  The  chief  obstacle 
to  this  program  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  Hence  the  first  work 
of  the  League  was  to  form  a  conspiracy  to  destroy  Lincoln 
and  prevent  his  renomination   for  a  second  term. 

They  accordingly  nominated  John  C.  Fremont  for  President 
before  the  convention  met  in  Baltimore  to  name  Lincoln's 
successor,  and  boldly  proclaimed  war  to  the  knife  against  the 
President.  They  figured  on  Fremont's  prestige  as  the  first 
formidable  candidate  of  their  party,  his  record  as  a  pathfinder 
and  his  grievances  against  the  Administration,  but  they  for- 
got that  he  was  born  in  South  Carolina.  Fremont  himself 
gave  the  League  a  mortal  blow  in  its  first  political  program 
by  boldly  repudiating  their  platform  of  vengeance  and  confis- 
cation. They  then  turned  on  their  own  candidate,  cursed  him 
as  a  fool,  and  helped  nominate  and  elect  Lincoln  as  the  lesser 
of  two  evils. 


< 

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o 

>■ 


Tim  STORY  OT    HIE  KU   KI.L'X   KI.AN 


Lpoii  the  assassiiialiciii  <il  llu'  rrcsi<l(,-nt.  Thaililcus  Stevens 
suddenly  became  the  practical  dictator  df  the  nation,  and 
the  Union  League  grew  rapidly  into  a  resistless  political  power. 
Within  two  years  almost  every  negro  in  the  South  had  been 
admitted  to  membership,  drilled  in  its  anarchistic  program 
and  in  the  manual  of  arms. 

When  the  time  was  ri])e.  Mr.  Stevens,  in  1867,  destroyed 
the  state  governments  in  the  South  which  had  been  estab- 
lished by  I 'resident  Johnson,  permitting  the  former  slave 
to  vote  to  enfranchise  himself  and  disfranchise  his  master  at 
the  same  election,      lie  divided  the  territory   from  the  James 

to  the  Rio  (jrande  into  five 
military  satrapies  and  sent  the 
armies  back  into  the  South  to 
enforce  compliance  with  Ne- 
gro rule.  In  short,  he  placed 
a  ballot  in  the  hands  of  every 
negro  and  a  bayonet  at  the 
breast  of  every  white  man. 

The  South  felt  that  no  peo- 
ple had  ever  been  so  basely 
betraved  or  so  wantonly  hu- 
milated. 

Judge  Albion  W.  Tourgee. 
author  of  "A  Fool's  Errand," 
which  is  the  carpet-bagger's 
story  of  the  Klan,  pays  a  tri- 
bute in  this  book  to  the  organ- 
izers of  the  "Invisible  Em- 
pire," which  is  very  remark- 
able, when  we  remember  that 
he  was  writing  of  enemies  w  ho  had  on  more  than  one  occasion 
sought  his  life. 

He  says;  "Such,  however,  was  the  indomitable  spirit  of 
the  Southern  people  that  they  scorned  to  yield  to  what  thev 
deemed  oppression,  protesting  with  indignation,  denouncing 
with  rage  and  fiercely  submitting  almost  with  tears.  No  con- 
quered foe  ever  passed  under  the  yoke,  which  they  conceived 
to  mean  servitude  and  infamy,  with  more  unwilling  step  or 
more  deeply  muttered  curses.  The  Ku  Klux  Order  was  a 
daring  conception  for  a  conquered  people.  Only  a  race  of 
warlike  instincts  and  regal  pride  could  have  conceived  or  exe- 
cuted it.  Men,  women  and  children  must  have,  and  be  worthv 
of,  implicit  mutual  trust.  They  must  be  trusted  with  the 
secrets  of  life  and  death  without  reserve  and  without 
fear.  It  was  a  magnificent  conception  and  in  a  sense  deserved 
success.  It  differed  from  all  other  attempts  at  revolution  in 
the  caution  and  skill  with  which  it  required  to  be  conducted. 
It  was  a  movement  made  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  and  an 
enemy  of  overwhelming  strength.  Should  it  succeed  it  would 
be  the  most  brilliant  revolution  ever  accomplished.  Should 
it  fail— well,  those  who  engaged  in  it  felt  that  they  had  nothing 
more  to  lose." 

Judge  Tourgee  was  in  my  opinion  the  most  brilliant  carpet- 
bagger who  found  fame  and  fortune  in  the  ruined  South.  In 
manv  ways  he  was  a  remarkable  man.  His  death  was  decreed 
by  the  Ku  KInx  Klan  for  the  part  he  look  in  persuading 
Governor  Holden  to  suspend  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  in 
North   Carolina.     The  writ  had  never  been  suspended  for  a 


Cenenil   .\athan  Bedford  Forrest,  of    lennessee. 
Chief  of  the  Ku  Khix  Klan 


rilU.  SIOKV   (»/•■   TIlli   Kl'  KLUX   KI..1.V 


moment  during  ihr  entire  lli^tllry  dl  llic  Coninionwcallli,  not 
even  (luring  the  tOiu'  years  of  war  wlien  tlie  conscript  acts 
were  enforced.  A  hundred  picked  men  were  commissioned 
to  execute  Tourgee  and  the  (lovernor  for  this  usurpation  of 
power  and  throw  their  bodies  inln  ihe  Capital  Square  at 
Raleigh.  They  failed  only  because  of  a  warning  received  in 
time.  And  yet  this  big-brained,  self-poised  Yankee  sat  down 
afterwards  and  wrote  the  tribute  to  his  foes  I  quote.  We 
Southerners  arc  much  too  intense  in  our  feelings  to  do  such 
things. 


It  never  occurred  to  Judge 
this  book  that  the  members  of 
this  Klan  were  merely  a  set 
of  scoundrels  and  despera- 
does. 

Nothing  perhaps  lietter  il- 
lustrates the  chaotic  condi- 
tions of  the  times  than  the 
manner  in  which  Judge  Tour- 
gee  obtained  his  title.  He  ap- 
plied to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
North  Carolina  for  license  to 
practice  law  and  fell  through 
on  the  examination.  He  cursed 
the  ancient  and  honorable 
Court,  composed  of  men  of 
great  ability,  as  an  aggrega- 
tion of  solemn  asses,  ran  for 
the  Legislature  on  the  Negro 
ticket  and  was  elected.  He 
passed    a    bill     through    the 


fourgee  at  the  time  he  wrote 


;\n  early  poitrait  of  lion.  John  W.  Morton,  present 

■Secretaiy   of   State,   of  Tennessee,  who  was 

General  Forrest's  Chief  of  Artiller\'. 


Black  Parliament  to  deprive  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  right 
to  examine  candidates  for  the  bar  and  placed  the  privilege  in 
the  hands  of  the  common  justices  of  the  peace,  many  of  whom 
were  negroes  who  could  not  read  or  w'rite.  He  went  before 
a  magistrate,  i)aid  his  fee  of  twenty  dollars,  got  his  license 
to  practice  law-  without  examination,  ran  for  judge  and  took 
his  seat  on  the  bench. 

I  do  not  record  this  fact  in  any  disrespect  to  the  memory  of 
Judge  Tourgee.  He  was  a  man  the  people  of  North  Carolina 
would  have  been  delighted  to  know  under  nobler  conditions. 
He  was  one  of  the  few  men  in  our  state  government  at  the 
time  wdio  had  any  brains  or  conscience  at  all.  He  was  a  prince 
among  the  "judges"  who  sat  with  him  in  those  trying  days. 
We  would  have  thanked  God  for  the  jjrivilege  of  trading  a 
half-dozen  scalawags  of  the  native  breed  for  one  such  Yankee 
of  ability. 

When  the  reign  of  terror  wdiich  followed  Negro  rule  reached 
its  climax  as  many  as  nine  burning  barns  were  seen  at  one 
time  from  the  Court  House  Square  of  the  town  of  Dallas 
in  Gaston  County,  North  Carolina. 

Taxpayer  conventions  met  an'd  appealed  to  Washington  in 
vain.  The  Administration  answered  by  sending  more  rifles 
to  arm  the  Negro  militia. 

The  laws  forbidding  the  intermarriage  of  races  were  re- 
pealed by  military  proclamation  and  the  commanding  General 
of  North  Carolina  took  a  negro  woman  with  him  over  the 
state  in  a  special  car  and  made  speeches  from  the  platform, 
declaring  that  she  was  his  wife,  that  a  new  era  had  dawned 


I 

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-X. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  KU  KLUX   KLAN 

in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  tiial  he  was  there  to  enforec 
its  spirit  with  the  baj'onet  if  need  be. 

The  lowest  type  of  negro,  maddened  by  these  wild  doc- 
trines, began  to  grip  the  throat  of  the  white  girl  with  his 
iilack  claws.  The  bestial-looking  creature  whose  portrait  ac- 
companies this  article  is  a  photograph  of  this  type  from  life. 
It  appeared  in  the  first  edition  of  my  novel,  "The  Leopard's 
Spots,"  but  the  publishers  were  compelled  to  cut  it  out  of  all 
subsequent  editions  because  Northern  readers  could  not  endure 
to  look  upon  the  face  of  such  a  thing  even  in  a  picture.  Yet 
the  people  of  the  South  must  face  this  living  beast  day  and 
night. 

In  this  the  darkest  hdur  of  the  life  of  the  South,  and  the 
lowest  in  public  morals  ever  known  in  the  nation,  the  Ivisibie 
Empire  suddenly  rose  from  the  field  of  death  and  challenged 
the  visible  to  mortal  combat. 

Within  a  few  months  after  the  appearance  of  the  white 
brotherhood,  the  disorders  of  anarchy  were  succeeded  by  a 
strange  peace,  positively  weird  in  its  completeness,  according 
to  the  acknowledgment  of  Judge  Tourgee.  In  the  first  cam- 
])aign  they  overturned  the  Negro  governments  of  si.x;  Southern 
states,  and  the  others,  one  by  one,  were  redeemed  under  the 
inspiration  of  this  success. 

In  North  Carolina,  my  uncle,  Colonel  Leroy  McAfee,  was 
elected  to  the  Legislature  from  Cleveland  County,  and,  as  the 
representative  of  the  Klan  on  the  Judiciary  Committee,  int- 
peached  Governor  Holden,  removed  him  from  ofifice  and  de- 
prived him  of  his  citizenship. 

Colonel  McAfee  was  in  many  respects  a  typical  leader  ni 
the  Klan.  He  was  in  the  official  language  of  the  Invisible  Em- 
pire a  Grand  Titan — that  is  to  say,  the  Commander  of  a 
Congressional  District.  The  chief  was  General  Nathan  Bed- 
ford Forrest,  of  Tennessee,  the  daring  and  brilliant  cavalry 
commander  of  the  Confederate  forces  of  the  Southwest.  His 
title  was  Grand  Wizard  of  the  Empire.  The  Grand  Dragon 
commanded  the  state,  the  Giant  a  county,  the  Cyclops  a  Town- 
ship Den. 

A  glance  at  the  portrait  of  Colonel  McAfee  will  convince 
even  a  Boston  Abolitionist  that  he  could  hardly  be  called  a 
rufifian,  scoundrel  or  desperado.  He  was  a  man  of  gentle 
manners,  courteous,  kindly,  brave  and  considerate,  an  alumnus 
of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  and  a  veteran  of  the 
Confederate  Army  who  led  a  company  of  volunteers  to  the 
front  the  first  day  of  the  war,  and  surrendered  a  shattered 
brigade  with  Lee  at  Appomattox. 

His  people  in  the  old  world,  of  the  clans  of  Mc.Mpin  and 
Ferguson,  were  of  the  best  blood  of  Scotland.  They  came 
to  America  from  Down  and  Antrim  in  the  north  of  Ireland 
with  the  great  martyr  migrations  which  peopled  America  with 
300,000   Scotch   Covenanters. 

The  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  commanded  and  led  to  its  triumph 
by  these  sturdy  clansmen  of  Scottish  ancestry :  Generals 
Forrest,  and  George  Gordon  of  Tennessee  and  John  B.  Gor- 
don of  Georgia  were  all  of  Scotch  blood,  and  the  hill  counties 
of  the  South  were  the  scenes  of  their  struggles  and  their 
victories,  in  the  duel  for  supremacy  between  the  "Union 
League,"  girdled  with  bayonets,  and  the  "Invisible  Empire." 

No  adequate  history  of  America  will  be  written  until  full 
credit  be  given  the  people  of  Covenanter  blood   for  the  part 


THE  STORY  Ol-    I  III-.  KC  KIA'X   KL.IN 


ihfv  plavi'd  in  crcalini^'  the  nation  and  devclnpins;-  its  life.  Here 
Judge  Tourgee  should  have  found  the  secret  of  that  magnifi- 
cent audacity  which  so  captivated  his  imagination.  The 
Lovenanter  of  the  South,  had  he  dreamed  of  Negro  dominion 
as  the  result  of  surrender,  would  have  chosen  to  continue  the 
Civil  War,  and  could  have  kept  an  army  of  half  a  million 
men  bnsv  for  forty  years.  His  race  had  defied  the  crown  of 
Croat  r.ritain  a  hundred  years  from  the  caves  and  wilds  of 
Scotland  and  Ireland,  taught  the  English  people  how  to  slay 
a  king  and  build  a  commonwealth,  and.  driven  into  exile  in 
America,  led  our  Revolution, 
peopled  the  hills  of  the  South, 
ancl    cnn(|uered    the    West. 

When  Colonel  McAfee  re- 
turned from  the  Legislature 
after  the  overthrow  of  the  Re- 
construction government,  he 
disbanded  the  Ku  Klux  Klan 
in  his  district  in  accordance 
with  General  Forrest's  orders. 
Younger  and  more  desperate 
men  reorganized  it  as  a  local 
fraternity  to  their  own  sor- 
row and  the  disgrace  of  some 
sections  of  our  mountain  re- 
gion. Its  degeneracy  into 
fierce  neighborhood  feuds  and 
its  perversion  by  the  lawless 
s\viftl\-  followed  until  it  be- 
came necessary  for  the  organ- 
izers of  the  original  Klan  to 
aid  in  the  suppression  of  its 
spurious  successors. 

A  study  of  the  portrait  of  Thadileus  Stevens,  the  man  who 
created  the  Union  League  and  sent  it  on  its  mission  of  re- 
venge and  confiscation,  one  sees  the  grim  soul  of  a  cynic  and 
misanthrope,  audacity  in  every  line  of  his  magnificent  head, 
and   merciless  cruelty   in  his  terrible  mouth. 

But  for  Mr.  Stevens  there  never  would  have  been  a  Union 
League,  and  but  for  the  L'nion  League  there  never  would 
have  been  a  Ku  Klux  Klan. 

Mr.  Laps  D.  McCord,  of  Tennessee,  is  another  man  whose 
portrait  scarcely  bears  out  the  description  of  a  "desperado." 
Clansman  McCord  was  the  printer  in  the  office  of  the  Pulaski 
Cili::cn.  who  set  the  type,  printed  and  stitched  the  complete  edi- 
tion of  the  ritual  of  the  order.  He  never  knew  until  years  after 
the  author  of  the  manuscript,  or  from  whose  hands  he  re- 
ceived it.  He  got  one  day  an  anonymous  letter  telling  him  to 
remove  the  middle  brick  in  the  space  beneath  a  certain  win- 
dow in  his  printing  office.  He  did  so  and  found  that  the 
brick  in  the  center  of  the  wall  had  been  taken  out  and  in  its 
place  lay  a  roll  of  manuscript  containing  the  ritual  of  the 
"Invisible  Empire."  No  name  appeared  in  the  title.  It  was 
merelv  marked  with  three  stars.  He  was  instructed  to  print 
and  bind  in  the  night  and  on  a  certain  date  between  the 
hours  of  one  and  two  a.m.  to  place  the  bundle  of  complete 
copies  outside  the  door.  He  did  as  ordered  and  unseen  hands 
bore  them  away  in  the  darkness. 

The  onlv  two  copies  of  this  ritual   which    1   know  to  exist 


Colonel   Leioy   McAfee,  a  typical  leader  ol   the 
Ku  Klux  Klan. 


< 


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<r 
a; 
O 
a. 

o 


•////:•  sroi^y  OF  run  ku  klux  kl.ix 


arc  to  be  found  in  the  library  .if  Culunibia  C'oik-se  and  the 
archives  of  the  State  of  Tennessee.  Its  author  is  General 
George  W.  Gordon,  of  Memphis. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  figures  in  the  inner  historv  of 
tlie  Klan  is  that  of  lion.  John  VV.  Morton,  the  present  Sec- 
retary of  State  of  Teimessee.  who  was  General  I'"orrest's  chief 
of  artillery.  Pale  and  boyish  in  appearance,  he  was  in  fact 
but  a  boy,  yet  he  won  the  utmost  confidence  of  the  General, 
who  relied  on  him  as  Stuart  did  on  I'elham,  and  Lee  on  Jack- 
son. Forrest  called  him  the  "little  bit  of  a  kid  with  a  great 
big  backbone." 

When  the  rumors  of  the  Kn 
Klnx  Klan  first  spread  over 
Tennessee,  Forrest  was  quick 
to  see  its  possibilites.  He  went 
immediately  to  Nashville  to 
find  his  young  chief  of  ar- 
tillery. 

"Morton,"  be  said,  "I  hear 
this  Klan  is  organized  in 
Nashville,  and  I  know  you're 
in  it.     1  want  to  join." 

The  youngster  fenced, 
smiled  and  gave  vague  an- 
swers. 

The  General  swore  a  little 
and  said  :  "Shut  up,  you  can't 
fool  me.  If  this  thing's  in 
Nashville,  you're  in  it,  and 
I'm  going  to  get  in  if  I  kick 
the  door  down.  Its  appeal  to 
the  terror  of  the  Negro  and 
its  profound  secrecy,  if  linked 


l,.,|. 


I )    MtCDid,  the  priiUcr  who  st;crt;tl\-  set  ii|i 
thf  type  and  put  to  press  the  ritual 
of  the    Ku  Klux  Klan 


with  wise  leadership  and  merciless  daring  at  the  proper  mo- 
ment, will  save  the  South!" 

The  young  man  avoided  the  issue  and  took  his  old  com- 
mander for  a  ride.  Forrest  i)ersisted  in  his  questions  about 
the  Klan,  and  the  \outh  kept  smiling  and  changing  the  sub- 
ject. On  reaching  a  dense  woods  in  a  secluded  valley  out- 
side the  city,  Morton  suddenly  turned  on  his  former  leader, 
and  said : 

"General,  hold  up  your  right  hand !" 

Forrest  did  as  he  was  ordered,  and  the  youth,  trembling 
with  excitement  and  bis  eyes  misty  with  tears,  solemnly  ad- 
ministered the  preliminar\  oath  of  the  order. 

Tb.at  night  the  general  was  made  a  full-fledged  clansman 
and  was  soon  elected  Gran<l  Wizard  of  the  Empire. 

Forrest  was  so  elated  over  the  success  of  his  mission,  he 
remained  over  a  day  to  help  young  Morton  with  his  girl  who 
was  hesitating  over  the  eventful  issue  of  life.  She  fairly 
worshipped  the  daring  General,  and  when  he  declared  to  her 
that  Morton  was  the  man  of  all  men  for  her,  she  gave  her 
consent.  A  beautiful  wedded  life  of  twenty-seven  years  fol- 
lowed. Three  sons  and  one  daughter  blessed  their  union  and 
all  three  of  these  boys  leaped  forward  to  defend  the  flag 
the  morning  McKinley  called  for  volunteers  in  1898. 

The  order  of  dissolution  of  the  Klan  as  issued  by  General 
Forrest  was  in  every  way  characteristic  of  the  man.  When 
the  white  race  had  redeemed  six  Southern  States  from  Negro 


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THE  STORY  OF  THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN 


rule  in  1870,  the  Grand  \\  izard  knew  thai  liis  mission  was 
accomplished  and  issued  at  once  liis  order  t(j  disband.  The 
execution  of  this  command  by  young  Morton,  the  Cyclo])s  of 
the  Nashville  Den,  also  of  the  staff  of  the  (lran<l  Wizard,  is 
typical  of  what  occurred  throughout  the  South. 

Thirty-five  picked  men,  mounted,  armed  and  in  full  Ku 
KUi.x  regalia  fur  l)nili  horses  and  men,  were  selected  for  the 
ceremony,  and  ordered  to  boldly  parade  through  the  streets 
of  Nashville.  The  Ca])itol  w-as  still  in  charge  of  3.000  Re 
construction  Militia  and  200  metropolitan  police  who  had 
sworn  to  take  every  Ku  Klux 
Klan  Klansman  dead  or  alive 
who  dared  to  sliow  himself 
abroad. 

On  the  night  appointed,  the 
stpiadron  of  thirty-five  white  and 
scarlet  horsemen  moved  out  of 
the  woods  and  bore  down  upon 
the  citv.  The  streets  were  soon 
crowded  with  people  watching 
the  strange  procession  of  ghost- 
like figures.  On  the  principal 
streets  the  police  blew  their 
whistles  and  darted  here  and 
there  in  great  excitement,  but 
made  no  move  to  stop  the  dare- 
devil ]viraders.  On  they  rode  up 
the  liill  an<l  passed  the  Qapitol 
buikling,  round  which  the  camp- 
fires  of  a  thousand  soldiers 
burned  l)riglitly,  and  not  a  hand 
was  lifted  against  them. 

They  turned  south  into  Higii 
Street  and  ladies  began  to  wave 
their  handkerchiefs  from  win- 
dows and  men  to  shout  and  cheer 
from  tlie  sidewalks.  The  scala- 
wag police  received  these  shouts  with  suppressed  oaths.  At 
last  they  began  to  summon  citizens  to  aid  in  the  arrest  of  the 
clansmen.     The  citizens  laughed  at  them. 

On  reaching  Broad  Street,  young  Morton,  who  rode  at 
the  head  of  the  squadron,  observed  a  line  of  police  drawn 
across  the  street  with  the  evident  intention  of  attempting  to 
stop  or  arrest  the  riders.  Turning  to  Mart  N.  Brown,  a  gal- 
lant clansman  who  roile  by  his  side,  Morton  said  : 

"What  shall  we  do.  Mart?'" 

"Turn  into  Vine  Street."  he  quickly  answered,  "pass 
around  them." 

"No — ride  straight  through  them  without  a  change  of  gait !" 
was  Morton's  order. 

And  they  did.  The  astonished  police,  dumbfounded  at  the 
insolence  of  the  raiders,  opened  their  lines  and  the  horsemen 
rode  slowdy  through  without  a  word. 

They  passed  a  large  frame  building  used  as  a  carpet-bag 
militia  armory.  It  was  full  of  negroes.  Morton  halted  his 
line  of  white  figures,  drew  tliem  up  at  dress  parade,  rode  up 
to  the  door  and  knocked.  The  negroes  rushed  to  the  doors 
and  windows,  and  when  they  saw  in  the  bright  moonlight  the 
grim   figures,   they    forgot   the   police   and   the   3,000   soldiers 


CHAKiCTEE  AJiD  OBJECTS  OF  THE  0RDE8. 

This  is  an  institution  of  Chivalry,  Humanity, 
Mercy,  «nd  Patriotism ;  embodying  in  its  genius 
and  its  principles  all  that  ig  chivalric  in  conduct, 
noble  in  sentiment,  generous  in  manhood,  and 
patriotic  in  purpose ;  its  peculiar  objects  being 

First :  To  protect  the  weak,  the  innocent,  and 
the  atfenceless,  from  the  indignities,  wrongs,  and 
outiages  of  the  lawless,  the  violent,  and  the 
biutaj;  to  relieve  the  injorsd  snd  oppressed;  to 
succor  the  suffering  and  cnfortunate,  and  espe- 
cially the  widows  and  orphans  of  Confederate 
soldiers. 

Second:  To  protect  and  de&nl  the  Constitu- 
tion of  l.he  United  States,  and  all  laws  passed  in 
conformity  thereto,  and  to  protect  the  States  and 
the  people  thereof  from  all  invasion  from  any 
source  whatever. 

Third ;  To  aid  and  assist  in  the  execution  of 
all  constitutional  laws,  and  to  protect  the  people 
fixftn  unlawful  seizure,  and  from  trial  except  by 
their  peers  in  conformity  to  the  lav.i  of  the  land, 

AETICLE   I. 

inxxs. 

Section  1.  The  officers  of  this  Order  shall 

consist  of  a  Grand  Wizard  of  the  Empire,  and 

his  ten  Genii ;  a  Grand  Dragon  of  the  Realm, 

3 

Fac-simile  of  the  tirst  page  of  the  ritual  of  the 
Ku  Klux  Klan. 


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Tllli  STORY  01'    nil:   KU  KLUX  KLAN 

nuarcliiij;-  Xaslivillc.  'I'Ik)  iikuIc  a  iinanininus  l)reak  for  the 
rear,  and  went  out  throui;!!  every  opening  without  knowledge 
of  any  obstruction.  Many  of  tliem  wore  window  sash  home 
for  coUars. 

The  clansmen  silently  wheeled  again  into  double  column, 
and  rode  toward  their  old  rcn<le7.vous.  They  had  overthrown 
the  carpet-bag  Negro  regime  and  restored  civilization.  Their 
last  act  was  a  warning.  .\  handful  of  their  men  boldly  slapped 
the  face  of  the  hostile  aiUhorities,  before  the  new  administra- 
tion entered  uixm  its  wnrk.  and  dared  them  lift  a  hand  again. 


"The  lowest  type  of  Ne};ro,  maddenci-l  by  these  wild  duelrines, 

l)esan  to  grip  the  throat  of  the  white  girl  with  his 

Black  Claws." 

Outside  tlie  city  they  entered  the  shadows  of  a  forest.  Down 
its  dim  aisles,  lit  by  threads  of  moonbeams,  the  horsemen 
slowly  wound  their  way  to  their  appointed  place.  For  the  last 
time  the  Chaplain  led  in  prayer,  the  men  disrobed,  drew  from 
each  horse  his  white  mantle,  opened  a  grave  and  solemnly 
buried  their  regalia,  sprinkling  the  folds  with  the  ashes  of  the 
copy  of  their  burned  ritual.  In  this  weird  ceremony  thus  ended 
the  most  remarkable  revolution  of  history. 


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WHAT  OUR   NATION  OWES 
TO    I'HK  KLAN. 

IT  is  a  curious  paradox  of  hi,stor\  that  the  law  sometimes 
owes  more  to  tliose  who  have  defied  it  tlian  to  its  ap- 
pointed guardians. 

Doubt  is  tlie  first  step  to  a  larger  faith. 

Denial  is  the  beginning  of  larger  affirmation,  and  the  traitor 
of  to-day  becomes  the  hero  and  lawgiver  of  to-morrow. 

Many  of  the  men  to  whom  we  owe  the  progress  of  the 
world  were  executed  as  criminals  by  the  official  guardians  of 
society. 

When  the  publisheil  formulas  of  law  have  been  outgrown  by 
the  race,  or  its  forms  for  any  reason  have  been  perverted  so 
that  they  no  longer  are  the  expression  of  the  organized  virtue 
of  a  people,  it  becomes  necessary  to  break  the  law  in  order  to 
keep  it. 

The  inventor  of  the  telescope  was  punished  as  a  common 
malefactor. 

George  Washington  was  a  traitor  to  George  III. 

It  is  often  necessary  for  those  to  whom  law  and  order  are 
dearest  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  lawless  that  in  the  death  of 
laws,  the  law  may  live. 

Some  years  ago,  the  chief  of  the  fire  department  of  Chi- 
cago, dressed  in  citizen's  clothes,  was  attending  the  funeral  of 
a  friend.  The  clergyman  was  praying  beside  the  open  grave, 
with  every  head  bared  and  reverently  bowed.  The  fire  chief 
suddenly  received  the  impression  of  danger  as  from  some  mys- 
terious call  of  the  soul.  In  obedience  to  a  resistless  impulse, 
he  raised  his  head  and  looked  toward  the  city,  to  find  the  sky 
line  lurid  with  smoke  and  flame.  From  the  locality  of  the 
fire,  its  headway  and  the  direction  of  the  wind,  his  trained  eye 
saw  it  meant  a  second  baptism  of  ashes  and  death  for  the 
gray  city  of  the  West.  In  violation  of  every  form  of  decency, 
he  sprang  through  the  crowd  of  mourning  friends  like  a  mad- 
man, and  ran  to  the  long  line  of  carriages.  At  their  head 
stood  a  pair  of  magnificent  horses  attached  to  a  landau.  A 
driver  in  livery  sat  on  the  box. 

The  chief  rushed  up  to  this  driver,  exclaiming : 

"My  man,  I'm  the  chief  of  the  fire  department.  I  must 
reach  that  fire  quickly.  The  city  is  threatened  with  ruin.  You 
have  a  fine  pair  of  horses — kill  them  if  necessary,  but  get  nie 
there  in  fifteen  minutes." 

"This  is  a  private  carriage,"  was  the  sneering  answer. 

"I  didn't  ask  you  whose  carriage  it  was,"  thundered  the 
chief.  "I  said  to  take  me  to  that  fire  in  fifteen  minutes — 
won't  you  do  it?" 

"I  will  not,"  snapped  the  driver. 

The  words  had  scarcely  passed  his  lips  when  the  chief  sprang 
on  the  seat,  his  big  fist  suddenly  shot  from  his  shoulder,  the 
driver  dropped  wriggling  on  the  grass  and  in  a  moment  a 
magnificent  pair  of  horses,  lashed  into  fury,  were  dashing 
through  the  streets  of  Chicago.  Mistaking  him  for  a  madman 
policemen  tried  in  vain  to  stop  the  carriage.  Within  fifteen 
minutes  he  reached  the  scene  and  gave  the  orders  which  saved 
the  city. 

The  act  was  a  violation  of  law.  And  yet  for  doing  it  Chi- 
cago has  built  a  monument  to  this  man. 

When  our  fathers  got  excited  about  the  tax  on  tea  they  did 
unlawful  things.     They  boarded  other  people's  ships,  grabbed 


^;..y:..>,^-   .^»^:.:.^««^w^..«««..,.^^^^. 


liSLai 


LYNCH:     "YOU   HAVE   IMPERILED    YOUR   HONOR    AND 
MY  LIFE!"— Act  IV. 


ini.lT  OUR  N.-ITIOX  Oll-liS   TO    Tllli   KI..L\ 

tea  that  did  not  belong  to  them  and  (Uinipcd  it  into  the  sea. 
When  they  finished  the  job  they  clinilied  upon  the  shore,  rolled 
up  their  sleeves  and  said : 

"If  anybody  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  or  the  other  side. 
don't  like  the  way  we  handle  tea,  let  them  come  on." 

This  was  a  violation  of  law.  It  was  a  highdianded  outrage. 
When  Benjamin  l-'ranklin,  our  European  (li])lomat,  heard  of  it 
he  gravely  informed  the  coiu't  that  it  was  a  lie,  that  no  such 
thing  ever  happened  in  Boston  harbor,  that  he  knew  the  peo- 
ple of  Boston,  that  no  such  crime  could  have  been  committed 
by  them.  He  soothed  the  indignation  of  the  court  with  tlu- 
assurance  that  the  next  ship  would  bring  the  news  of  the  affair 
on  which  they  might  rely. 

A  ship  did  bring  news. 

It  was  from  Bunker  Hill. 

Our  fathers  broke  the  law  and  wrote  a  better  one.  Thev 
were  prophets  not  parrots,  men  not  martinets.  They  did  not 
talk  about  their  ancestors.    They  were  ancestors. 

I  have  been  accused  of  celebrating  in  The  Clansman  the 
glory  of  a  group  of  daring  and  successful  lawbreakers.  I 
plead  guilty  to  the  soft  impeachment. 

The  Ku  Klu.x  Klan  was  a  gigantic  conspiracv  of  lawless 
night  raiders  who  saved  the  civilization  of  the  South,  and  be- 
queathed it  as  a  priceless  heritage  to  the  nation. 

The  conditions  which  made  tliis  paradox  possible  have  no 
parallel  in  the  records  of  our  race. 

The  bloodiest  war  in  history  had  just  closed.  The  conquered 
South  lay  helpless  with  tlie  flower  of  her  manhood  buried  in 
nameless  .graves. 

Four  million  ne.groes  had  been  suddenly  freed  and  the  eco- 
nomic world  torn  from  the  foundations  of  centuries.  Five  bil- 
lion dollars'  worth  of  property  had  been  destroyed,  every  bank 
had  been  closed,  every  dollar  of  money  had  become  worthless 
paper  and  the  country  had  been  plundered  by  victorious  armies. 

With  the  sympathetic  aid  even  of  their  foes,  the  task  of 
reorganizing  their  wrecked  society  and  controlling  these  mil- 
lions of  ignorant  and  superstitions  negroes  was  one  to  appall 
the  stoutest  hearts. 

Instead  of  the  cooperation  of  a  generous  conqueror  the 
South  as  she  staggered  to  her  feet  received  full  in  the  face  a 
blow  so  terrible,  so  cruel,  and  so  pitiless,  that  it  surpasses 
belief. 

Such  a  blow  on  a  disarmed  and  helpless  foe  could  have  been 
struck  but  for  the  tragedy  of  Lincoln's  assassination  and  the 
frenzy  of  insane  passion  which  for  the  moment  blinded  the 
North. 

Upon  the  assassination  of  the  President  the  greatest  and 
meanest  man  who  ever  dominated  our  national  life  became  the 
master  of  the  Republic. 

This  man,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  was  beyond  any  doubt  the 
most  powerful  parliamentary  leader  in  all  our  history.  A 
fanatic,  a  misanthrope  embittered  by  physical  deformity,  a  born 
revolutionist  endowed  with  matchless  audacity,  he  became  in 
a  moment  the  bold  and  unscrupulous  ruler  of  a  crazed  nation. 

Twenty-eight  years  before  this  crisis  he  had  become  infatu- 
ated with  a  mulatto  woman  of  extraordinary  animal  beauty 
whom  he  had  separated  from  her  husband.  This  yellow  vam- 
pire had  fattened  on  him  during  his  public  career,  amassed  a 
fortune  in  real  estate  in  Washington,   wrecked  his  great  am- 


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IVHAT  OUR  NATION  OIVES   TO    rilli   KL.tN 

bitioiis,  and  made  of  him  a  social  pariah.  This  giant  among 
men,  whose  young  soul  had  learned  the  pathway  of  the  stars, 
his  cheeks  now  whitening  with  the  frosts  of  death,  was  slowdy 
sinking  with  this  woinan  into  the  night  of  ncgroiil  animahsni. 
The  crack  of  a  derringer  in  the  box  at  I'ord's  'J'iieater,  and 
the  hand  of  a  machnan  suddenly  snatched  him  from  the  grave 
and  lifted  him  into  the  seat  of  empire  witli  his  negro  wench  b_\' 
his  side! 

Mr.  Stevens  determined  to  blot  the  old  South  fnuii  the  map, 
conliscate  the  property  of  its  citizens,  give  it  to  the  negroes, 
deprive  the  whites  of  the  ballot,  send  their  leaders  into  beg- 
gared exile,  enfranchise  the  negro  and  make  him  the  master  of 
every  state  from  the  James  to  the  Rio  Grande. 

If  this  statement  seems  an  exaggeration,  let  my  reader  turn 
to  the  Congressional  Globe  for  1867,  p?.ge  203.  and  read  ]Mr. 
Stevens'  Confiscation  Act,  House  Bill  No.  29,  and  his  speech 
in  its  defence — a  speech  which  will  forever  light  with  the  glare 
of  innnortal  infamy  his  character  and  career. 

He  succeeded  in  enfranchising  the  negroes,  anrl  disfranchis- 
ing enough  whites  to  give  them  a  majority. 
A  reign  of  terror  immediately  followed. 

The  men  who  represented  Aryan  civilization  had  to  take 
their  choice  between  rebellion  or  annihilation. 

During  this  period  in  South  Carolina  80,000  armed  negro 
troops,  answerable  to  no  authority  save  the  savage  instincts  of 
their  officers,  terrorized  the  state  and  not  a  single  white  man 
was  allowed  to  bear  arms.  Hordes  of  former  slaves,  with  the 
intelligence  of  children  and  the  instincts  of  savages,  armed 
with  modern  rifles,  paraded  daily  before  their  former  masters. 
The  children  of  the  breed  of  Burns  and  Shakespeare,  Drake 
and  Raleigh  had  been  made  subject  to  the  spawn  of  an  African 
jungle.  \\'hen  Goth  and  Vandal  overran  Rome  and  blew  out 
the  light  of  civilization  they  never  dreamed  the  infamy  of 
raising  a  black  slave  to  rule  over  his  white  master  and  lay  his 
claws  upon  his  daughter. 

Could  modern  flesh  and  blood  endure  it? 
No.  The  spirit  of  the  South  suddenly  leaped  forth,  "half 
startled  at  herself,  her  feet  upon  the  ashes  and  the  rags,"  her 
hands  tight-gripped  upon  the  throat  of  tyrant,  thief  and  beast. 
The  Ku  Klux  Klan,  a  secret  oath-bound  brotherhood,  rose, 
disarmed  every  negro  and  restored  Aryan  civilization.  The 
secret  weapon  with  which  they  strucl<  was  the  only  one  at 
their  command,  and  it  was  the  most  efficient  in  the  history  of 
revolutions.  The  movements  of  these  white  and  scarlet  horse- 
men were  like  clockwork.  They  struck  shrouded  in  a  mantle 
of  darkness  and  terror,  and  they  struck  to  kill.  Discovery  or 
retaliation  was  impossible.  Their  edicts  were  executed  as  by 
destiny  without  a  word,  save  the  whistle  of  their  Night  Hawk, 
the  crack  of  his  revolver,  and  the  hodf-beat  of  swift  horses, 
moving  like  figures  in  a  dream,  and  vanishing  in  mists  and 
shadows. 

The  Southern  people  in  their  despair  had  developed  the 
courage  of  the  lion,  the  cunning  of  the  fox,  and  the  deathless 
faith  of  religious  enthusiasts. 

With  magnificent  audacity,  infinite  patience,  and  remorseless 
zeal,  a  conquered  people  turned  his  own  weapon  against  their 
conqueror,  and  beat  his  brains  out  with  the  bludgeon  he  had 
placed  in  the  hands  of  their  former  slaves. 

And  so  a  lawless  band  of  night  raiders  became  the  guardians 


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IVII.-IT  OUR  NATION  OWES  TO   THE  KL.IX 

of  society,  brought  order  out  of  chaos,  law  out  of  lawlessness 
and  preserved  the  Aryan  race  in  America  from  the  corruption 
of  negroid  mongrelism.  Had  the  South  in  that  crisis  become 
mulatto,  the  nation  would  inevitably  have  sunk  to  its  level. 

The  future  of  this  nation  depends  on  the  strength  and  puritv 
of  our  white  racial  stock  ;  for  this  Republic  is  great,  not  by  rea- 
son of  the  amount  of  dirt  we  hold  or  the  size  of  our  census 
roll.  W'c  have  become  great  for  one  reason  only :  because  of 
the  genius  of  the  race  of  pioneer  white  freemen  who  settled 
this  continent  dared  the  might  of  kings  and  made  a  wilderness 
the  home  of  freedom. 


(i[l)p  Aiupriran  ^rl|ool 
of  piaguirtttng 

HY  MAIL  FIFTH  YEAR  MONTHLY  PAYMENT 


There  are  schools  for  the  teaching  of  painting,  mvisic  and  other  arts- 
Playwriting  is  an  art.  Can  you  give  any  sane  reason  why  it  cannot  be 
taught  ?  This  was  the  first  school  of  the  kind  established  in  the  world. 
It  is  securing  the  attention  and  cooperation  of  the  best  minds.  Perhaps 
you  have  been  writing  "plays"  for  years,  never  by  the  remotest  chance 
disposing  of  one.  Has  it  never  occured  to  you  that  your  knowledge  of 
the  art  is  fatally  defective  ?  It  requires  as  much  time  to  learn  it  as  Law 
or  Medicine.  SIR  HENRY  IRVING:  "You  may  be  the  mightiest 
genius  that  ever  breathed,  but  if  you  have  not  studied  the  art  of  writing 
for  the  stage  you  will  never  write  a  good  acting  play." 

Mr.  Thomas  Di.xon,  Jr.,  a  man  of  genius,  open  minded  and  clear- 
sighted, author  of  "  The  Clansman,"  a  play  that  is  turning  people  away  at 
every  perfomiance,  kindly  writes  : 


yw^  ^ 


FOR  CIRCULAR,  ^DDREiS:    W.     T.     PRICE 

1440  BROADWAY     [NEW  YORK  CITY 

"Ufje  SechniQue  of  the  Drama/'  by  IV.  T.  Price 
$1.50:  "Brentano's  or  as  aboVe 


®If^  Ollansman 


By  THOMAS   DIXON,  Jr. 


THE  PLAT 
THA  r  IS 
STIRRING 
THE 
NA  TION 


